Following up on the plethora of tantalizing reports of winter rarities in?Asotin County, Kim Thorburn, Garrett MacDonald, and I trekked down to the southeastern corner of the state today (12/07/11. ?The weather was mostly sunny, calm, and chilly (low 20's to mid-30's).?

Arriving in the Clarkston Swallows Park Marina around?8:10 AM, we were dismayed to view a goose-free lagoon. There were a few scattered geese on the slough to the north, but the big flock of geese that had been previously reported was absent (presumably they had left earlier than usual). ?However, there was a very dark MERLIN on a shoreline snag of the marina. At the north end of Swallows, there was a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER and a pair of Eastern Fox Squirrels.

On the slough in Chief Looking Glass Park in the town of Asotin, we saw GREEN-WINGED TEAL, GADWALL, WOOD DUCK, HOODED MERGANSER, MALLARD, and a flock of CANADA GOOSE that had one CACKLING GOOSE in the mix. ?Farther upstream, we noted BELTED KINGFISHER, CANYON WREN, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, CALIFORNIA GULL, RING-BILLED GULL, HERRING GULL, and ?one adult THAYER'S GULL (on the Idaho shoreline on our second pass of the day). Gulls were widely scattered and few in number.

Heading up the plateau on Weissenfels Ridge Road, we encountered ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, AMERICAN KESTREL, NORTHERN HARRIER, and NORTHERN SHRIKE. ?Although we didn't have anything unusual a the 10km marker, we could see another distant unidentified raptor perched on a power pole about 1 kilometer farther up the road. The raptor appeared to be finishing up breakfast, and we stopped less than 100 meters away from it in order to scope it. To our delight, the raptor in question turned out to be our sought after GYRFALCON! Even though the light was against us, we had great views of the bird's head pattern,and its heavily barred, medium- gray back and tail. After enjoying a ten minute view of the Gyr , it lifted off and flew low over the ground with shallow, and rather stiff looking wing strokes. Before the gyr powered itself out of our sight line, it ?was briefly harassed by a foolish Northern Harrier!

Over the next couple of hours, we diligently searched for Snowy Owls on Anatone Flats. Unfortunately, we dipped on the Snowy Owls. However, we did manage to turn up a mixed flock of BOHEMIAN & CEDAR WAXWINGs on Davis Road. The waxwings were flycatching from the tops of some tall Lombardy Poplars.?

Other birds of interest included HORNED LARK, AMERICAN ROBIN, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, and two PRAIRIE FALCONs (which was our fourth falcon species of the day). ?Scattered Mule Deer and Coyotes were on the flats as well.

Retracing our route along the crestline of Weissenfels Ridge, we stopped again at the 10km sign post. We heard a distinct sound of a SNOW BUNTING's flight call, but we couldn't obtain a visual on it. Finally,?we flushed a covey of 25 GRAY PARTRIDGEs. While this particular chicken just happened to be my fifth county lifer tick of the day, the Chukar still rules supreme as my Asotin County nemesis bird.?

While we made afternoon checks along the Snake River and Swallows Park, we still couldn't find the Western Gull or Ross's Goose. As the afternoon light waned, we drove out on Peola Road and the Mail Route Road spur in a futile attempt for Snowy & Short-eared Owls. Obviously, we didn't have time (or light) to try for the Mann Lake snowy or gyr, but we were well pleased the high quality species that we did see today.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA