Hi Tweeters,
Bill and I have spent the past couple days birding in southeast Washington, mostly in Asotin county. I've been using the county checklists for the area produced by Ken Knittle and Matt Bartels. As those of you who do this know, each bird is rated from 1 to 5 in each county as to its relative abundance. One is common and 5 pretty rare. So I thought I'd mention the birds we've seen in the past two days that rated 3 or higher:
White Pelican--we've seen many on the Snake River. They are in breeding coloration and have those interesting horns on their bills now.
Avocets (3) in a farmer's pond on the way to Anatone (Hwy 129).
Wilson's Snipe on a telephone pole near Anatone
Franklin's Gulls (2) on the Snake River in front of our hotel in Clarkston 6:45 pm
Forster's Tern (1) Swallow Park in Clarkston
Hermit Thrush, one heard at Field Springs State Park

Weather has been off and on bad/good. Yesterday was beautiful, today it rained about half the time, but we still did lot s of interesting birding!
Cheers, Charlotte Byers, Seattle