Subject: [Tweeters] 6/28 birding: Metaline Falls to Clarkston
Date: Jul 6 10:25:17 2011
From: Tim Brennan - tsbrennan at hotmail.com



Hey Tweets,

On the fourth day of my swing around the state, I attempted to find 25 more birds before leaving Pend Oreille County, to make it a nice even 100 for my visit! The Lake Calispell area (although not really the lake itself) were productive, with good passerines on the west side of the road (added Dusky Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, and Pileated Woodpecker), and more birds in the fields (added Killdeer, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Bobolink, Northern Harrier, and Great Blue Heron). Lake Calispell itself was hard to view, and all I was able to pull out of there were some Coots. In fact most of the lakes I hit (Davis Lake and Sacheen Lake later) were pretty duck free - the marshes around the Kalispel Indian Reservation did have some Cinnamon Teals and Redheads, however. While Davis Lake itself was not productive, there is a marsh just north of it, on the east side of the road, that had Sora calling, and a half-dozen Black Terns!

I ended up on Kirkpatrick Road at about 2 in the afternoon, looking around for a Clay-colored Sparrow, or hoping that a Black-chinned Hummingbird would visit the feeders on the south side of the road. The last three I picked up were Cassin's Finch, California Quail (from the house with the hummingbird feeders), and Vesper Sparrow (in the fields where I was looking for the Clay-colored Sparrow). 100! whew!

I'm thankful for every minute I had, because my first three attempts at lodging failed. Central Ferry State Park in Whitman County is closed indefinitely, my GPS guided me to a deserted road instead of the Tucannon RV Park, and the motel in Pomeroy was full! I rolled in to Clarkston after 9:00 at the Motel 6, ready to venture into the Blue Mountains the next day.

-Tim Brennan
Renton
www.39counties.blogspot.com