Hi Tweeters,

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I spent all of Saturday and a portion of this morning birding?in northeastern WA with Barb McDowell, concentrating mostly on Turnbull and Little Pend Oreille NWRs.? This is a really beautiful region of the state that I don't get to very often, and I wish that I could have stayed much longer.? I feel that such a short time there, especially at the latter refuge, allowed us to only scratch the surface.? Here are a few of the highlights:

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Turnbull NWR:? We arrived on Sat. shortly after the gate opened, returned Sat. evening and left less than 5 minutes before the gate closed, and returned for a 3rd time this morning just as the gate was opening.? Although several species were no longer actively vocalizing, there was still an impressive number of species about, with a lot of recently fledged birds in the mix, making IDing interesting at times.? Among the 50 or so species which we saw were PYGMY, WHITE-BREASTED, & RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE adult with a pesky recent fledgling, a bazillion or so WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, CALIFORNIA QUAIL, a very vocal SWAINSON'S HAWK, a least 4 GRAY CATBIRDS, lots of HOUSE WRENS, MARSH WREN, YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS (the male s were no longer vocalizing, but we did see some sneaking about; the females were much more active and visible), lots of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, CHIPPING SPARROW, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, YELLOW WARBLER, 4 BLACK TERNS (no longer in breeding plumage); numerous BLUE-WINGED TEALS, RUDDY DUCKS, & GADWALLS, 1 surprising BUFFLEHEAD female, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, WILSON'S SNIPE, lots of KILLDEER, WILD TURKEY, A. WHITE PELICAN, and a GREAT HORNED OWL that flew to the top of a small pine tree just as it was getting dark.? Mammals include a young bull moose with a small set of velvety antlers, elk, white-tailed deer, porcupine, coyote, and a bat (sp?).

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Little Pend Oreille:? In addition to some of the species already mentioned above, we saw an AMERICAN REDSTART male, my first in the state and a lifer for Barb.? We were able to locate this species at the Cottonwood Campground thanks to a posting by Terry Little on the NW Birders list serve.? Coming to the hummingbird feeders at the refuge headquarters were several BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRDS & 1 female CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD.? Along the trail to McDowell Lake (perhaps named for one of Barb's ancestors), we came across 2 BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS & 2 WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS and a continuous swarm of mosquitoes.? Other species seen at the refuge included VESPER SPARROW, A. KESTREL, & REDHEAD.

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And now, the mystery bird.? As we were driving to Turnbull this morning (around 5:40),?going west on I-90, and just as we were taking the Exit 270 ramp, we noticed a bird in a recently mowed hay field that seemed unusual.? I pulled off to the space between the highway and the exi t and we examined it with our binoculars.? Only its head and back were showing above the cut hay, but it appeared to be a very large grouse.? The lighting was still dim, but we could make out a dark head and neck, brown back, and a pure white upper chest.? It had a small grousy beak.? Its posture was also that of a grouse.? Nearby was a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a stack of hay bails, which made for a nice size and shape comparison.? The grouse-like bird was definitely not a hawk.? It wouldn't move, so we gave up and drove on.? About 3 hours later, we were driving on the same stretch of road (heading home) and we saw the bird in the exact same spot.? It had emerged enough so that all of its body was showing except for its legs.? This time, I didn't have a chance to pull over (there were a lot more cars on the road by now), but we saw it turn its head to preen its back, and, as it did so, it opened up its tail (brownish) into a fan shape.? We did not see any 'spiked' feathers at the end of the tail.? We could also see that the whole chest was white.? Other than the lack of spikes on the tail fan, it looked exactly like a male GREATER SAGE GROUSE to me.? The question, of course, is what it was doing in west Spokane in a hay field away from its known range (I believe) and sage habitat.? Could it have been an escapee?? Are there any similar species that have been released in the area for hunting?? Does anyone have any suggestions?

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On the way home, we made a detour to Soap Lake, where?Barb showed me brine shrimp and made me taste the salty water.? Still feel sick.? In addition to people coated in healing mud (worth the drive just to see that), we saw 4?RED-NECKED PHALAROPES and a few WESTERN SANDPIPERS.? The?A.?Avocets and Black-necked Stilts?had?already migrated away.

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We made a final detour to Huntzinger Rd. prior to enjoying the traffic jam that awaited us east of the pass .? We could not locate the Black-throated Sparrows, and I regretted not having actually read the posts that gave their exact location.? I did call a certain birder friend for the information, but he was apparently watching Harry Potter or something, and did not pick up.? We did get some nice close ups of a?ROCK WREN.? We stopped by the bridge just before the dam, and Barb spotted a tern flying over the nearby lake on the side of the road opposite to that of the river (west side) next to the Priest Rapids?Project (not open to the public, although the nice young man who caught us on the wrong side of the barrier told us that it will be next year).? It was smaller than a Caspian Tern, and when I was able to get a good look at it through the bins, I could see?that it was a COMMON TERN still in breeding plumage.? It even vocalized for us, to confirm the ID.? Swimming below it in the lake was a juvenile CANVASBACK.

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The best bird seen from the car while driving?about ?was a COMMON NIGHTHAWK.? We ended up with 77 or so species for the weekend.

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Now I'm ready to sleep for 10 hours.? Good birding and may diagnostic vagrants come your way.

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Lonnie Somer

Olympia

wheelermombi at comcast.net
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