I birded today from Sandpoint to the Canadian Border. It felt awfully
brisk all day after 60 degrees in Lewiston yesterday. I started at the
Sandpoint Fish Hatchery with a MARSH WREN and about 40 COMMON REDPOLLS.
Sandpoint City Beach had lots of birds, including ~600 Common Mergansers
and a few Greater Scaup. At Hawkins Point I had 40-50 Red-necked Grebes, a
handful of Red-breasted Mergansers, and about 6 Bonaparte’s Gulls. The
Driftwood Yard at the Clark Fork Delta had a few more Greater Scaup and a
small flock of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, which have been sparse so far this fall.

Onward to Boundary County, waterfowl were laying low and running scared in
the Kootenai River Valley. A Common Loon was my Boundary County first at
Kerr Lake (scope-able from the intersection of West Side and Copeland
Roads, west of the community of Copeland). At Boundary Creek WMA, the
second to last bird was the best one of the day. I watched as a PACIFIC
LOON swam down the Kootenai River from Idaho, past the confluence with
Boundary Creek, and into Canada for TWO more quick county ticks. I
finished the day with a Great Horned Owl along Kerr Lake Road at dusk

Good Birding,

Carl Lundblad
Moscow, ID