Subject: [Tweeters] West Plains/Mill Canyon
Date: Jan 8 19:37:59 2012
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


While viewing the widely reported NORTHERN HAWK OWL eating its breakfast vole this morning on the West Plains (on the Mountain View Estate property), I realized that I hadn't reported the the birding excursion that Jon Isacoff and I made across the West Plains and Mill Canyon on Friday (1/06/11). ?

On the eastern side of Airway Heights, we saw NORTHERN SHRIKE and a very attractive male MERLIN (with a lovely blue back). While dipping on the Coulee Heights Snowy Owl, we did the circuit south of Hwy. 2 and noted ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, NORTHERN SHRIKE, N. RAVEN, AMERICAN KESTREL,HORNED LARK, WESTERN MEADOWLARK - 6, ?and AMERICAN TREE SPARROW - 13.

On the Sunset Hwy. (Lincoln County), we saw a nice dark HARLAN'S HAWK, and there were two GREAT HORNED OWLs roosting in the West Reardan thicket.?

Mill Canyon was nice and birdy and we found SPOTTED TOWHEE, DARK-EYED JUNCO, all three nuthatches, BROWN CREEPER, N. FLICKER, BELTED KINGFISHER, TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, BALD EAGLE,, and a vociferous NORTHERN PYGMY OWL. At the mouth of Mill Creek, there were CANVASBACK -6, GREATER SCAUP -2, LESSER SCAUP - 11, PIED-BILLED GREBE - 1,AMERICAN WIGEON -1, MALLARD, BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON GOLDENEYE, GREEN-WINGED TEAL - 1, COMMON MERGANSER -6, and AMERICAN COOT.?

For Stevens County listers, duck hunters flushed most of the waterfowl flock from the Lincoln County side and the Canvasbacks and Lesser Scaup landed on the Stevens County side of Long Lake.

Climbing out of Green Canyon, we heard a GREAT HORNED OWL hooting in the sunny (but cold) afternoon. Back up on the plateau and heading south on Level Road, we were pleased to find two GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHes on a roadside powerline. The rosy finches then landed in an adjacent field. They were clearly of the Rocky Mt. subspecies, and it was the first time that I have ever seen any Rosy Finch species on snowless terrain. Farther along, there were a mated pair of GOLDEN EAGLES cruising and softly calling together.

In Davenport, there was a COOPER'S HAWK, EURASIAN COLLARED DOVEs - 40+, and a couple of AMERICAN ROBINs. On Gravelle Road, we found a lonely SONG SPARROW and flushed out a GREAT HORNED OWL. On the rolling CRP land to the east, we saw two SHORT-EARED OWLs.
Our last notable bird of the day, was a PRAIRIE FALCON on the eastern end of Detour Road.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA