My wife and I joined her parents on Sunday, June 12, in a small counting group led by Kim Thorburn, one of several groups organized by Nancy Williams of the BLM of Spokane to mark International Migratory Bird day. We were assigned the roadside wetlands, mostly following the gravel road along the north perimeter of the Fishtrap Lake area, essentially parallel to I-90 for several miles. We traversed mostly marshy lake and stream-side and sage shrub steppe habitat, with grasslands and some Ponderosa Pine scattered through the channeled scablands.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, with very nice Eastern Washington birds (57 species for our group, and similar numbers for the other groups, but different birds in different habitat zones, I don't know the total number).

Highlights included: Redheads, Black Terns (about a dozen at each small lake, probably nesting), Grasshopper Sparrows (singing on territory), Lazuli Buntings, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Willow Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbirds, Western Wood Peewees, Great Horned Owls, nesting Marsh Wrens, and American Coots (with orange-billed chicks).

Gary Kelsberg
Seattle