Well, I spent a couple of hours in Asotin County this morning, but couldn't
turn up anything of note, and most specifically I couldn't find species #151
for my Asotin list. Oh well. Then I headed to Garfield County - the county
without birds.

I will say that NORTHERN SHRIKE were scattered around fairly commonly. I
also had one ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK along Kirby-Mayfield Rd., juvenile GOLDEN
EAGLE on Lower Deadman Rd., and I had both SHARP-SHINNED and COOPER'S HAWKS
at several spots.

But the best illustration of "county without birds" was my first target
location: Lower Granite Dam - I traversed the whole area along the Snake
River carefully and found ~35 MALLARDS and 1-2 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS.
No other ducks, no geese, no loons, no grebes, no coots, no gulls. That's
dead water!

Rice Bar HMU wasn't much better, though I did find a MARSH WREN, 28 WESTERN
GREBE, 7 AMERICAN COOTS, and... A single EARED GREBE was the highlight of
the day, just out from the parking lot. There was also one gull that I
didn't get a good look at. It was the only gull of the day in Garfield
County. There was a GREAT HORNED OWL in a bush on my way up the hill as I
left.

Central Ferry had MALLARD, AMERICAN WIGEON, BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON GOLDENEYE,
PIED-BILLED, HORNED, and WESTERN GREBES.

Marsh Wren was Garfield bird #147 for me, and Eared Grebe got me to 148,
which left me just 2 short of my goal. So I headed to the trees.

On Pataha Creek Rd., I had PYGMY NUTHATCH, HAIRY WOODPECKER, GOLDEN-CROWNED
KINGLET (#149), and VARIED THRUSH (#150).

I feel bad about leaving both Asotin and Garfield at 150, but I figured I
need just 2 county lifers in Benton County to get to 150+ in every county,
so I high-tailed it west right after the thrushes.

We'll see what tomorrow brings in Benton County for me.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at frontier.com