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September 11, 2004

I was fortunate enough to have a WOS Field Trip scheduled for Grant County the day after the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was located in Moses Lake. As expected, the group elected to immediately try for the flycatcher. Everyone was elated when we located the bird immediately after arriving at the last posted location. A great thanks to Steve Frazier for locating such a great bird, to Teri Pieper for reporting it, and to Randy Hill for excellent directions.

The field trip was initially schedule for shorebirds so we continued our trip to Soap Lake where several good birds were also located in addition to the usual shorebird suspects. Two SANDERLING were located at East Beach, also on East Beach was a Solitary Sandpiper, at a pull-out along SR-17 at mid-lake we had a very nice flyover by a Peregrine Falcon, also at this location a SABINE'S GULL was observed flying up the lake. The juvenile Sabine's was located roosting with a large number of Ring-bills at the north end of the lake.

At Potholes State Park a good number of Common Terns were observed fishing over the lake. Migraine Lake on the Columbia NWR provided good views of approximately a dozen Bonaparte's Gulls. Good numbers of shorebirds were not located. Though we managed to find 12 species, the numbers were not there. Only a dozen Long-billed Dowitcher were located. Perch Point held almost no peeps, Lind Coulee was worse with only a few, and the shoreline of Potholes Reservoir in the vicinity of the State Park was devoid of shorebirds except a small flock on a fly-by.