Last Tuesday (4/01/08), Jon Isacoff and I birded
Stevens County. Although melting, the fresh snowfall
from the previous day was still in evidence.

Perhaps due to lingering cold winter weather, there
has not been as much flooding of the Colville River.
Ephemeral "Lake Chewelah" is not as expansive this
year. However, there were still plenty of waterfowl
present such as NORTHERN PINTAIL, AME. WIGEON, AME.
COOT, etc. BALD EAGLEs were patrolling the shorelines,
and a TURKEY VULTURE made an early appearance, and
lingering ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs remained. A small
contingent of CACKLING GEESE were on the wetlands west
of Valley.

Colville Flats was loaded up with several hundred
scaup of both species. Within the large flock of
roosting gulls that consisted of HERRING, RING-BILLED,
and CALIFORNIA, there was one first cycle THAYER'S
GULL (county lifer for me).

On Thursday (4/03/08), we birded the southern
Waterville Plateau of Douglas County. The weather was
wonderfully sunny but coo.

En route, we saw YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD and TREE
SWALLOW with more of the expected waterfowl at
Reardan. An EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE was in downtown
Reardan as well.

We saw TURKEY VULTURE in three different counties,
Wilbur (Lincoln Co.) , Hartline (Grant Co.), and Dry
Falls Jct. (Douglas Co.). In addition, there were six
RED-BREASTED MERGANSERs and a couple of HORNED GREBEs
cruising the Douglas County shoreline of extreme
southwestern Banks Lake (Dry Falls Jct.).

A pair of LOGGERHEAD SHRIKEs joined the prolific
singing Sage Sparrows in Moses Coulee. However, no
Brewer's Sparrows or Sage Thrashers were to be found.
We only saw one VESPER SPARROW and A GOLDEN EAGLE for
the day.

Jameson Lake contained a nice array of expected
waterfowl, such as both scaup species, both
goldeneyes, CANVASBACK, REDHEAD, RING-NECKED DUCK,
MALLARD, GADWALL, COOT, AME. WIGEON, RUDDY DUCK, NO.
SHOVELER, etc.

While Stallard Lake was barren, we were quite pleased
to pick seven GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE on West
Haynes Lake. The latter was a Douglas County lifer for
me.

Jon's extract from EBird from our trip on 4/3/08 is
listed below:



DOUGLAS COUNTY - 49 Species:

Greater White-fronted Goose 7

Canada Goose 20

Gadwall 8

American Wigeon 20

Mallard 15

Northern Shoveler 12

Northern Pintail 4

Green-winged Teal 75

Canvasback 25

Redhead 26

Ring-necked Duck 50

Greater Scaup 8

Lesser Scaup 134

Bufflehead 12

Common Goldeneye 6

Barrow's Goldeneye 3

Common Merganser 2

Red-breasted Merganser 7

Ruddy Duck 4

Chukar 2

Pied-billed Grebe 2

Horned Grebe 2

Turkey Vulture 1

Bald Eagle 1

Northern Harrier 2

Red-tailed Hawk 3

Rough-legged Hawk 2

Golden Eagle 1

American Kestrel 2

American Coot 302

Ring-billed Gull 1

California Gull 2

Say's Phoebe 6

Loggerhead Shrike 2

Black-billed Magpie 5

Common Raven 5

Horned Lark 42

Tree Swallow 4

Violet-green Swallow 8

Marsh Wren 1

American Robin 5

European Starling 4

Vesper Sparrow 1

Sage Sparrow 8

Dark-eyed Junco 1

Red-winged Blackbird 8

Western Meadowlark 5

Brewer's Blackbird 5

House Finch 1



GRANT COUNTY:

Canada Goose 50

Red-breasted Merganser 4

Turkey Vulture 1

Northern Harrier 1

Rough-legged Hawk 1

American Coot 100

Killdeer 1



LINCOLN COUNTY:

Canada Goose 50

Tundra Swan 5

Gadwall 12

American Wigeon 20

Mallard 10

Northern Shoveler 24

Lesser Scaup 4

Bufflehead 20

Common Goldeneye 2

Ruddy Duck 20

Eared Grebe 1

Turkey Vulture 1

Northern Harrier 2

Red-tailed Hawk 3

Rough-legged Hawk 4

American Coot 20

Killdeer 1

California Gull 1

Rock Pigeon 5

Eurasian Collared-Dove 1

Common Raven 1

Horned Lark 60

Tree Swallow 1

Violet-green Swallow 1

Marsh Wren 4

American Robin 20

Dark-eyed Junco 20

Red-winged Blackbird 10

Yellow-headed Blackbird 4

Brewer's Blackbird 1

House Finch 10

House Sparrow 10



SPOKANE COUNTY

Red Tailed Hawk 3

Brewer's Blackbird 3

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA


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