Latah Co. arrivals, 4/21/2008

I decide to head down to the lower elevations of Latah Co. this afternoon to see if migrants were stuck down there waiting out the cold weather. This means heading to Kendrick which is along the Potlatch R. at ~750 ', considerably lower than Moscow at ~2500'. I went down Little Bear Ridge Rd. east of Troy and was surprised to see ~15 N. Shovelers resting along the upper part of Little Bear Ck. which is in a forested valley at this point. Further along past Little Bear Ridge cemetery I stopped at my favorite farm pond which had the following:

Tundra Swan     1
Gadwall     2
American Wigeon     20
Mallard     2
Northern Shoveler     10
Canvasback     1 (female, persisting from last week)
Bufflehead     5
Killdeer     3
Greater Yellowlegs     1
Lesser Yellowlegs     1 (foy - first of year)
American Robin     20

Heading on down to Kendrick I stopped a bit above the confluence of Big & Little Bear Cks. and spent the next hour working the area just above and below the confluence which held a good variety of migrants. Most notable was a group of 10 Townsend's Solitaires in several cottonwoods just below the confluence along w/ a Mountain Bluebird. I presume most of these and the other migrants were waiting out the cold here before heading to higher elevations. This area is about a mile north of Kendrick.

Mallard     3
Turkey Vulture     3
Cooper's Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk     1
American Kestrel     1
Northern Flicker     1
Common Raven     1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     2 (first of year)
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Rock Wren     1                             (first of year)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     3
Western Bluebird     8
Mountain Bluebird     1                  (first of year)
Townsend's Solitaire     12
American Robin     4
Orange-crowned Warbler     5
Nashville Warbler     1
Yellow-rumped Warbler     8
Song Sparrow     2
White-crowned Sparrow     2

Reports generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

A stop at Kendrick produced an Osprey (foy) flying over the Potlatch R. We then stopped at the Juliaetta park so Iris could play and had a large flock of swallows fly over heading up the river - mostly unidentifiable due to height and light (but I presume mostly Violet-green Swallows) but with a few Vaux's Swifts (foy) mixed in. This last experience makes me wonder if this is where most of the swallows from Moscow and points east retreat to during these early spring cold snaps.

thanks, Charles.

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Charles Swift
Moscow, ID
chaetura@gmail.com