Lewiston/Clarkston Valley Field Trip
Leaders: Keith Carlson and Rick Welle
Written By Alan McCoy
Long-tailed Duck (Photo by Alan McCoy)
There were no bananas to be found down in Lewiston or Clarkston this January. We did, however, find some ducks, lots of ducks, which of course were inevitably on the other side of whatever body of water we were peering over. They didn’t seem to mind the rain or cold at all. And we were pretty sure we heard them laughing at all 14 shivering birders, fumbling with their gloves while attempting to wipe their lenses and focus through their fogged optics.
Did I mention that there were ducks? Ring-bills, bufflehead and scaup, oh my! A couple dozen Wood Ducks graced the limbs of pond-side trees. What a fantastic sight! The one duck we were most interested to find was a Long-tailed Duck and, with Keith Carlson as our guide, we saw at least a couple.
Wood Ducks (Photo by Alan McCoy)
Probably the coolest sighting for many of us was a Cooper’s Hawk chasing a Eurasian Collared-Dove. The hawk persevered at some length until, wham, it scored! We were thrilled to have witnessed the drama; the dove not so much.
Lindell’s fondest memory of the trip was the voice of an early Western Meadowlark. She also got a lifer as her group spotted a flying Gyrfalcon. That would have been a lifer for yours truly as well, but we had split into two groups for logistical reasons. Our team went to the landfill in search of a Lesser Black-backed Gull, while the other team ventured off to locate the Gyrfalcon. We saw the gull but when we switched places we missed the falcon. The other team got both! Such is the birding life.
The sun finally peeked out towards the very end of the day as we searched the cliffs for, and once again found, Gray-crowned Rosy Finches. Despite the cold and wet we had a great day birding with friends. Now we just need to come up with a better name for this trip.