On Sunday evening (5/31/09), Sarah de la Rue and I followed up on Randy Hill's tantalizing report of Poorwills on Lower Crab Creek Road. Specifically, I needed Poorwill for Adams County, and Sarah wanted a nice visual of this nocturnal species.

Although we didn't have much time for diurnal birding, we made a cursory attempt for an Adams County Sage Sparrow. Within our limited time frame, we only worked the sagebrush along Hwy 24. Our attempts yielded a pretty LARK SPARROW. Other than meadowlarks, not much else was singing.

At dusk on Lower Crab Creek Road, we diligently worked the Adams County area from the Adams/Grant county line to the Kielien Pines. Twenty minutes of searching were poorwill-less. Conditions were excellent (i.e. calm winds, warm temps), and I was becoming concerned that the Poorwills that Randy had found were mere migrants.

After jolting up our pulse rate a bit with the occasional bat, we finally saw a COMMON POORWILL fly overhead and around us a couple of times. Although it never called (female perhaps?), we had decent aerial views in our torchlight. At least there was one poorwill to be had in Adams County!

Driving back into Grant County, we listened in vain for poorwills. Within a 3/4 to half mile (around 10:15 PM) east of Corfu, there was an explosive vocal response. Poorwills on both sides or the road began to vigorously call, and we had a close encounter flyover. While there were at least four poorwills at this spot, two of them landed on the road and afforded us extremely nice views.

Other critters on our evening run included Coyote, Striped Skunk, Mountain Cottontail, Mule Deer, unidentified bats, and a Bullfrog. Thanks again to Randy Hill for his helpful info.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA