Today (11/29/08), my dad Roger, Gina Sheridan, and I birded a bit in
Asotin County and nearby areas. We managed to get underneath the fog
although light drizzle prevailed through much of the day. We started
out at the Asotin County Landfill where we easily found 1 GLAUCOUS
GULL, 1 GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL, and lots of Herring, California, and
Ring-billed Gulls. The LBBG's wouldn't put in an appearance this time
or in another visit mid-day.



Along Evans Rd by the Snake River a couple VIRGINIA RAILS responded to
playback, and a Marsh Wren was cooperative. Chief Timothy SP didn't
have a lot of birds but we did find a few goodies. A straggler male
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER was great, as was a lutescens ORANGE-CROWNED
WARBLER. Added to a few Yellow-rumped Warblers we weren't doing to bad
for warblers in November. Also had a Downy Woodpecker, a Brown
Creeper, lots of Juncos including one of those weird intergrades, and a
couple RB Nuthatches. But the best bird came as we got back to the
car. After we had looked through Song and White-crowned Sparrows in
droves all morning, I finally picked out a SWAMP SPARROW just to the
west of the base of the causeway going out to the island. For
interest, the road accessing the island is closed for the winter, but
you can walk the park from here like we did.



We ventured along Alpowa Creek into Garfield County, where we found a
large concentration of White-crowned Sparrows, a few Black-capped
Chickadees, a Downy Woodpecker, a late RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and a lone
flyover BOHEMIAN WAXWING.



Driving through Clarkston we had a MERLIN right above the road along
6th Street. Swallows Park had a hybrid American X Eurasian Wigeon but
not much else. We headed back along the Snake River in Whitman County,
where we found a COMMON LOON (also crossing into Garfield), and both
Rock and Canyon Wrens. Then it was back up into the fog on the plateau
and home.



Michael Woodruff

Spokane, WA
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