On Sunday (August 31, 2008), Michael & Roger Woodruff, and I ventured up to Stevens County. The weather was surprisingly cold (36 degrees) in the morning, and it was slow to warm up. While mostly sunny skies raised the temp into the mid-60s by the afternoon, it plunged back to the low 50's when a convective rain shower commenced.

Even though we only birded until 3:30 PM, we netted some 101 species for the day. Some of the main highlights were as noted below.

In the early morning near Springdale, a Veery was calling and a SOLITARY SANDPIPER was present. Flocks of CHIPPING SPARROWs were in evidence. Huckleberry Mountain had quite a few passerines and other interesting birds such as MT. & CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEEs; ORANGE-CROWNED, MACGILLIVRAY'S, YELLOW-RUMPED, TOWNSEND'S, and WILSON'S WARBLERs; singing CASSIN'S VIREO, WARBLING VIREO, HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER, HAIRY WOODPECKER, RUFFED GROUSE, and WILD TURKEY.

Scoping Lake FDR/COLUMBIA RIVER from Hunters Park, we saw EARED GREBE, OSPREY, AMERICAN WIGEON, and RED-NECKED PHALAROPEs -2 (county lifer for me). The RN Phalaropes remained unperturbed by the motor boats passing by. Farther up the river, we saw HORNED GREBEs, GREEN-WINGED TEAL & BLUE-WINGED TEAL, and a BALD EAGLE.

One of my favorite sites for rare gulls, terns, and waterfowl is Colville Flats. Aside from the expected RING-BILLED & CALIFORNIA GULLs, we saw two COMMON TERNS feeding off the point. I believe that this is the only the second record of Common Tern for Stevens. The Common Terns obliged us by flying over to the Ferry County side too.

In the Colville Flats Wetland, we saw GREATER YELLOWLEGS, WILSON'S SNIPE, WOOD DUCK, and HOODED MERGANSER. In Colville, we dipped on the Euro Collared Dove. Just north of Valley, we saw LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER & GREATER YELLOWLEGS.

Our last big productive spot was the Valley STP. Here we had five species of swallows, COMMON GOLDENEYE, GADWALL, RING-NECKED DUCK, REDHEAD, RUDDY DUCK, and NORTHERN HARRIER.

It was a certainly a fun day with good friends and good birds.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA