Happy New Decade Tweets!

On an icy Saturday morning (1/09/10), Jon Isacoff and I birded Mill Canyon in Lincoln County. In the 26 degree air, sleet and freezing drizzle iced up our windshield, and turned paved surfaces into makeshift ice rinks.

Driving along the Sunset Highway at West Reardan, we saw ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and NORTHERN HARRIER. Although we tried the two sites where Terry Little had found Gyrfalcons on the previous day, we experienced no joy with those. However, In the canyon between Egypt and Fort Spokane, we did see a STELLER'S JAY.

Other than a RED-TAILED HAWK and a lone TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, we noted that the cold forested canyon virtually devoid of avian activity. However, things brightened up when we arrived at the mouth of Mill Creek. While a couple of BALD EAGLEs acted as sentries on the riverfront, we scoped through the scattered waterfowl from the bluff overlook turn-out. The expected ducks included AMERICAN COOT, MALLARD, C. GOLDENEYE, L. SCAUP, CANVASBACK - 2, C. MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, and CANADA GOOSE. On the near shoreline, we noted a HERRING GULL. After about ten minutes of scanning the river, we were rewarded with a visual on the 2nd year GLAUCOUS GULL that had landed on the ice shelf on the Lincoln side of the river.

As we were about to change our position, a WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER flew in to the pines near the cabins. Since it came flying in from the direction of the river, I'm not sure whether it had been following the shoreline on the Lincoln side or whether it had actually flown across the river from the Stevens County side.

After a couple of duck hunters left the shoreline from the opposite side, we finally glimpsed an actively diving LONG-TAILED DUCK. Eventually, the LT Duck worked it's way from the Stevens County side and crossed the county line into Lincoln County. While we were patiently waiting for the LT Duck to resurface, Mark Houston drove up, and we all enjoyed excellent views of the Glaucous Gull that drifted on the river and occasionally chased Herring Gulls away. Before the Glaucous Gull flew off down river and disappeared around the bend, it obliged us county listers by crossing over to the Stevens County side of the river.

In effect, we were quite pleased to have obtained "two-fer" county tics for both the LT Duck and Glaucous Gull. Once again, Mill Canyon delivered some nice rarities for us to kick off the new year.

Just as a quick addendum, I should mention that Michael Woodruff and I did bird the Snake River (on December 28th, 2009) on both the Asotin and Whitman County sides and ended the day along the stateline northeast of Pullman. While birding was quite slow and disappointing for some of our target birds, the highlights were as a follows.

Near dawn in Steptoe Canyon, we dipped on the reported Great Gray Owl, but we did see one GREAT HORNED OWL, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, BEWICK'S WREN, and numerous PINE SISKIN, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs, and SONG SPARROWs. The best ducks on the river were BARROW'S GOLDENEYE and HOODED MERGANSER at Port of Wilma (Whitman Co.). Chief Timothy HMU held a NORTHERN SHRIKE, but nothing unusual.

Even though we hiked well up the Nisqually John Canyon, we couldn't turn up a Lesser Goldfinch out of the flocks of siskins and AMERICAN GOLDFINCHes. However, we did see a couple of LINCOLN'S SPARROWs, and a HERMIT THRUSH. Later, we dipped on the Dipper in Pullman.

As dusk fell, we worked the Fallon Road Stateline Pine Grove. We managed to flush a furtive BARRED OWL from the Whitman County side over to the Latah, County, Idaho side. On the Idaho side, Michael flushed a NORTHERN SAW-WHET, and WE beheld wonderful views of this cute little guy.

Birding in the new decade,

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA