Hi all,
Today in southern Pend Oreille County, there were lots of great birds everywhere! Jon Isacoff, MaryFrances Mathis, and myself birded together hitting such spots as Sacheen Lake, Calispell Lake, Usk / Cusick, Flying Goose Ranch, Riverbend, and Tacoma Creek. We were joined for a short time by Terry Little and his son Joshua. A big thanks to Terry for pointing out some birds we would have missed! Here are the details...
We started out the day checking out the southern end of Sacheen Lake. Going off a previous report from Terry Little for Bittern, we stopped at the WDFW boat launch and listened carefully. Right when we were about to give up, the "gulping" sound of an AMERICAN BITTERN shot out from the marsh on the other side of the chain-link fence. The Bittern vocalized a couple more times for us and then we moved on.
We then headed north to the Calispell Lake area where we ran into Terry and Joshua. Before finding them just off the highway on West Calispell Road, we heard and then saw WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE which was FOY for us. A DUSKY FLYCATCHER was also singing at this spot as well. Moving further down the road to where Calispell Creek crosses, we really hit the jackpot. Immediately, we heard a very loud NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH singing. We got a very nice view of one of them perched on top of a snag. Also here, were AMERICAN REDSTART, RUFFED GROUSE, GRAY CATBIRD, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, and so much more. Most interesting was a pair of COMMON GOLDENEYE that were flying about checking out cavities in trees. They were constantly in the air while we were there. Our FOY EASTERN KINGBIRD was seen here as well.
Calispell Lake and all the streams feeding it are very full of water. We stopped several places to scope the lake and the edges. Terry helped us get on 3 BONAPARTE'S GULLS that were on the far east side of the lake. Also, we spotted a lone LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER working the grassy edge. At one of our stops, we heard several BOBOLINK singing in a grassy field. Little did we know that we would see these birds all over the Calispell Lake and Usk / Cusick areas. The fields are very wet so it seems they are taking advantage of the great conditions. BLACK TERNS were working the lake as well and many ducks were about including at least 3 CANVASBACK. Terry let us know that he had a visual of a swan from the south end of the lake. So we moved to the north end where the swan was and scoped it to find it was a lone TRUMPETER SWAN.
Flying Goose Ranch had singing MARSH WREN and very responsive VIRGINIA RAIL. The PO River was very high here, but the road is dry all the way out to the river's edge, but no islands or mud is exposed along the river. Out in the river, we spotted a lingering pair of GREATER SCAUP. A little further north at the Riverbend Ponds, we found six WILSON'S PHALAROPES that were apparently working on a little breeding. On our way out, we spotted a lone gull flying above the river and were very happy to see it was a CALIFORNIA GULL which are tough to find in PO.
Working our way up into the Tacoma Creek drainage, we heard several warblers including YELLOW-RUMPED, TOWNSEND'S, and ORANGE-CROWNED. HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERS were calling and singing as well. We could not turn up any of the good quality woodpeckers in this area despite our efforts.
By my count, we nearly hit 100 species for the day. My own personal count was 97 and I could fill this report with all the different birds, but I won't do that. It was a great day with great company!
Good birding!
Tim O'Brien
Cheney, WA
mailto: kertim7179 at yahoo dot com