Hello All,

On Friday, I was able to join Tom Mansfield and Ken Knittle for a great day
of birding in Pend Oreille County. Beautiful weather and good birds were
the themes of the day.

Allen Road, the southern border of the county was where we began. Not a lot
to report except some nice looks at Lincon's Sparrows among the many White
crowns. Many American Pipits as well.

Calispell Lake was pretty dead, except for a few more Lincoln Sparrows.

Along the Pend Oreille River at the Kalispell Indian Reservation, Ken's
sharp eye found 3 Horned Grebes and Western Grebes mixed in large flock of
Coots. We spotted another flock of 23 Horned Grebes further up the river.
Our best bird in this area was a flock of 150 White fronted Geese winging
their way north high above Flying Goose Ranch.

Our next area to explore was Harvey Creek Rd and Bunchgrass Meadows. Gray
Jays and Varied Thrushes were numerous all the way up the road and we saw
four Ruffed Grouse and a Townsend's Solitaire as well. A mixed flock of
Mountain and Boreal Chickadees were found up on top at the meadows itself.


Sullivan Lake hosted a Common Loon and Common Mergansers.

We ended the day birding Mt Salmo. Again, Gray Jays and Varied Thrushes
were everywhere and a couple of American Dippers were seen along the creek.
At Gypsy Meadows, a very responsive Barred Owl nearly took my head off. Tom
got some nice pictures. Continuing up the mountain, we stopped at one of my
favorite and most dependable spots, the infamous hairpin turn, where we had
a Northern Pygmy Owl, American Three toed Woodpecker, and few more Boreal
Chickadees, mixed in with the many Mountain Chickadees.

As it turned dark, we were joined by Jon Isacoff. After dark, we began
looking for Boreal Owls. Early on, we had no reponse. That may have
partially because of another very aggressive Barred Owl that came in to
check us out. Finally, we did have a couple of Boreal Owls "skiew" at us,
but we never got to see them.

Birding with friends on a beautiful day in a beautiful county and getting
to see some nice birds. Thats kind of what its all about.

Terry Little
Mead, Wa