Hi All -

I apologize, as I'm a week late in reporting. I ran the "Keystone" Breeding Bird Survey route last Sunday and wanted to share what I saw.

Breeding Bird Survey routes are 25-miles long, and have a fairly strict protocol for tallying birds seen & heard on the route. "Each year during the height of the avian breeding season, June for most of the U.S. and Canada, participants skilled in avian identification collect bird population data along roadside survey routes. Each survey route is 24.5 miles long with stops at 0.5-mile intervals. At each stop, a 3-minute point count is conducted. During the count, every bird seen within a 0.25-mile radius or heard is recorded. Surveys start one-half hour before local sunrise and take about 5 hours to complete. Over 4,100 survey routes are located across the continental U.S. and Canada." You can read more at the USGS' BBS site at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/about/

I've been volunteering for this count since 1994 (holy Cow!), and really enjoy the opportunity to get over to the dry side during this time of year. Through the years, I've seen 87 species, and averaged tallying 49 species and counting a little less than 1,000 individuals at the 50 stops.

My route begins at Cow Lake - about 10 miles east of Ritzville - in Adams County. It continues north on Wellsandt Road, skirting the wheatlands and the "pimpled prairie" ("Biscuit-and-Scab" and Mima-Mound geography of the Channelled Scablands) into Lincoln County, crosses Crab Creek, continues north through the sagebrush and wheat lands, crossing Lord's Creek, and ends along Highway 23 about 5 miles south of Harrington.

This year I saw 963 individuals of 49 species, which was right in the median for what I expected. My new bird for the count was a late-migrating Whimbrel feeding in a farm field just south of the County line. I didn't see any Long-billed Curlews on the count this year, for the first time in several years.

Mallard - 4 at 2 stops
Cinnamon Teal - 2 at one stop
California Quail - 1 at one stop
Gray Partridge - 3 at 2 stops
Ring-necked Pheasant - 21 at 17 stops
American White Pelican - 3 at one stop - likely flying to Cow Lake from Sprague Lake
Northern Harrier - 2 at 2 stops
Swainson's Hawk - 1 at nest at one stop - low count
Red-tailed Hawk - 10 at 7 stops
American Kestrel - 1 at one stop
American Coot - 4 at 3 stops
Killdeer - 8 at 6 stops
Whimbrel - 1 at one stop - probably a late migrant, rather than a breeding bird
Ring-billed Gull - 18 at 8 stops - all fly-overs - a really low count
Ring-billed Gull - 16 at one stop - too far to tell RB gull from Californias
Rock Pigeon - 26 at 4 stops
Eurasian Collared-Dove - 2 at 2 stops
Mourning Dove - 13 at 7 stops
Great Horned Owl - 1 at one stop
Common Nighthawk - 2 at one stop
Red-shafted Flicker - One at one stop
Willow Flycatcher - One at one stop
Say's Phoebe - 5 at 5 stops
Western Kingbird - 17 at 10 stops
Eastern Kingbird - 2 at 2 stops
Black-billed Magpie - 6 at 4 stops
Common Raven - 17 at 10 stops
Horned Lark - 170 at 38 stops
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 2 at one stop
Bank Swallow - 4 at 2 stops
Cliff Swallow - 79 at 10 stops
Barn Swallow - 13 at 7 stops
House Wren - 4 at 4 stops
Marsh Wren - 1 at one stop
American Robin - 7 at 6 stops
Sage Thrasher - 3 at 2 stops
European Starling - 83 at 13 stops
Brewer's Sparrow - 4 at 3 stops
Vesper Sparrow - 42 at 19 stops
Lark Sparrow - 2 at 2 stops
Savannah Sparrow - 41 at 22 stops
Grasshopper Sparrow - 13 at 10 stops - a bit on the low side
Song Sparrow - 3 at 3 stops
Red-winged Blackbird - 51 at 12 stops
Western Meadowlark - 132 at 38 stops
Yellow-headed Blackbird - 53 at 2 stops
Brewer's Blackbird - 27 at 8 stops
Brown-headed Cowbird - 35 at 12 stops
House Sparrow - 6 at 4 stops

I think that the greatest decline I've seen in this count over the 20 years is the colony of Bank Swallows along Lord's Creek near the junction of Highway 23 and Oestreich Road. There used to be nearly 30 birds nesting in holes in the stream bank, but I was down to 4 birds seen this year. I do enjoy the little Grasshopper Sparrows and their bug-like buzzy calls, and think this is one of the better places to see them in the area.

Anyway, it was a great morning, seeing birds, mule and white-tailed deer, and a beautiful sunrise. The lupine, mules-ears, and Gaillardia were in full bloom. I'm sure there are some vacant routes around the state for interested birders to check into for the 2015 season - look up the State Coordinator's info at the web site and volunteer. Go "birding with a purpose"!

Best,
Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
festuca at comcast dot net