Hey all,

The second day of my big trip around the state started with Flammulated Owls at Lyman Lake, and took me through Ferry and Stevens counties. Highlights:

AM in Okanogan County - dipped on every woodpecker I was hoping for (White-headed, Black-backed, and Williamson's - any of which would have been lifers, but all of which I missed despite having GPS coordinates for sightings... is "epic dip" a phrase that has been coined yet?) I did however get my first lifer of the day in Okanogan, a Veery that I heard while watching a hummingbird feeder on Aeneas Valley Road. That road, by the way, gets very rough as it makes its way to Highway 21!

51 species in Ferry county, with stops at Gold Creek (just past the treacherous part of the aforementioned road - lots of flycatchers, warblers and vireos there), Mud Lake, northeast of Republic (breeding Ruddy Ducks, Lesser Scaups, and some noisy Yellow-headed Blackbirds), White Mountain Burn (Hermit Thrushes, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red-naped Sapsucker, and Mountain Chickadees), and Bangs Mountain Road (Dusky Grouse - a lifer, but no Boreal Chickadees that I could find!).

I made fewer stops in Stevens County, doing most of my birding at Little Pend Oreille NWR, where I saw 53 of the 62 species I saw in the county before the day ended - a list worth including:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Hooded Merganser
Red-necked Grebe
Turkey Vulture
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Common Nighthawk
Red-naped Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
(not - White-headed, Black-backed or American Three-toed... all of which have been seen on the refuge recently... dip dip dip)
Western Wood-Peewee
Willow Flycatcher
Pacific-Slope Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Cassin's Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Pygmy Nuthatch
Western Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Tanager
Lazuli Bunting
Black-headed Grosbeak
Western Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Siskin
Evening Grosbeak

It was a great day of birding! Being able to stop and do most of my birding in one place in Stevens County restored my enthusiasm a little, and got me thinking about trying for 100 species in Pend Oreille County between the next two days, before heading down to the Southeast corner on the 28th...

To be continued! :)

Happy Birding,

Tim Brennan
Renton
www.39counties.blogspot.com