Hi all -
I spent a bit of time birding some the less shore-birdy counties this weekend seeing what shorebirds might be around.

Ferry County:
Saturday 8/12
Nothing much at the mouth of the Sanpoil River.
Republic STP - only Spotted Sandpipers & Killdeer for me.
Then I went up to Sanpoil Lake, just north of Republic ? as reported by Donna Bragg, the marshy area north of the lake is hosting a lot of shorebirds these days:
Stilt Sandpipers - 2
Semipalmated Sanpiper - 1 or 2
Least Sandpiper - several
Long-billed Dowitcher - 1
Lesser Yellowlegs - 1
Pectoral Sandpiper - 1
Solitary Sandpiper - 1-2

Pend Oreille County:
Saturday 8/12
Flying Goose Ranch ? it was ?Baird?s Day?
Baird?s Sandpiper - 30+ ! The sandbar was just full of them
Semipalmated Plover - 3
Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs - 3-4 each
Killdeer - many
Spotted Sandpiper -1

Dike Road - no luck on shorebirds except for Spotted Sandpiper, and the Peregrine reported by Terry Little wasn?t around. But the Lewis?s Woodpeckers were still there.

Calispell Lake
The mud on the north end of the lake is extensive ? so extensive that I wasn?t able to do much with most of the shorebirds I could make out far away ? a large group of peeps was flying around, and yellowlegs were present.
Best of all was having one of the Peregrine Falcons reported by Terry cruising through on my second visit, later perching on a roadside power pole.

Columbia County:
Sunday 8/13
Mouth of the Tuccannon River on the Snake River
there a a nice sandbar this year, viewable from 261 after parking just beyond the mouth.
Long-billed Dowitcher - 1 ? nice code 5 bird!

Just south of Starbuck, near MP 6 on SR 261 - nice flooded fields that have produced shorebirds in past years ? you have to stare for a long time and from different angles to turn up the birds, but it can be worth the search:
Solitary Sandpiper - 2 [code 4]
Baird?s Sandpiper - 1, maybe 2 [code 5]

Trips out to Little Goose Dam and up Tuccannon River valley to the fish hatchery and Beaver & Watson Lakes ended up producing no shorebirds ?

Good shore-birding!

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA