On Tuesday (1/31/12), Jon Isacoff took advantage of a bright sunny day and birded some selected sites in Lincoln County. In the late morning hours, we tried quartering the area around Swanson Lakes, for Sharp-tailed & Sage Grouse. Unfortunately, we dipped on the chickens. The shrub steppe was mid-winter quiet, and only the expected species were seen (i.e. Rough-legged Hawk, No. Shrike, Horned Lark, etc.). We did see a couple of returning RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDs though.

Better luck was had at the northern end of the county. In the Hawk Creek Campground, we saw AMERICAN DIPPER, COMMON GOLDENEYE, MALLARD, BUFFLEHEAD, KILLDEER, and a lively RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET that was associating with a flock of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs.
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In Seven Bays, we saw a mixed flock of COMMON & BARROW'S GOLDENEYEs, HORNED GREBEs, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, CEDAR WAXWING, EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE, and large numbers of HOUSE FINCHes. ?Only two gulls were present, but one was a winter adult THAYER'S GULL, and the other a RING-BILLED GULL. This was only the fourth county record for Thayer's Gull.?

Although we found an interesting patch of heavily scaled pine trees in Indian Canyon, we couldn't turn up any Black-backed Woodpeckers this time. My county nemesis ?Pileated Woodpecker eluded us as well.?

Our last notable bird of the day was a MERLIN (not that easy in Lincoln County) east of Reardan. All in all, it was pleasant day of birding.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA