The third day of the trip was without a doubt the toughest day of the trip from a weather and finding birds standpoint. We headed south from Spokane hoping to go to Steptoe Butte and bird around the Rock Lake area. Whitman County is another area I’d not birded much at all in the winter birding timeframe (I know it’s really autumn, but in the birding year migration is mostly past, and the winter residents are largely in place for the winter) and so I had hopes of finding most of the available wintering water birds, as well as a variety of land birds. We headed south in pretty heavy snow. By the time we got to the turnoff from Hwy 905 in Cheney it was really snowing heavily. We continued past Turnbull and got to the overlook to the Whitman Quarry Pond, but couldn’t really find a good overlook, and headed to the south end of Rock Lake. When we got there it was more a freezing rain and pretty stiff wind, and there were almost no waterfowl on the lake. The only duck was Bufflehead, but Black-billed Magpie and Belted Kingfisher made for a disappointing 3 county lifers.
The weather remained really difficult, so instead of trying for Steptoe Butte we drove to Pullman hoping for a FOY Washington Blue Jay. On the drive there we didn’t see a Rough-legged Hawk, expected by me, but did see a flock of about 18 Snow Buntings as they lifted off the road in front of us and flew into the wheat stubble and disappeared. 13 individual BLJAs had been seen the day prior, but no luck for us. It was my first visit to WSU, and in a couple of hours poking around we did add Mourning Dove and Cooper’s Hawk on campus, and another 7 first county species at the Pullman-Koppei Community Gardens by a small creek in town. Great looks at Lesser Goldfinch was probably the highlight.
We tried for Steptoe Butte in the afternoon as the weather cleared, but the access road was blocked by a gate, so this ended a pitiful day of birding.

Saturday was the day to drive home, and I decided to try for a few winter Ferry County birds on the trip home. We drove to the Keller Ferry, with a short stop at the Reardon Ponds on the way. Nothing there, but it was a beautiful cold clear day. We tried the Davenport Cemetery on the way, but it was blowing a gale, and very few birds were found, despite really trying for an owl in the trees.
By the time we got to the Lincoln County end of the Keller Ferry the wind had died down, and it was spectacular. The Eastern WA ferry system is a free, on-demand ferry system every 20 or so miles along the Columbia River, letting people cross without building little used bridges. We were the only car on board, and I managed to see Horned Grebes on the Ferry side for a county first. The only birding we did was on the Swawilla Basin Road loop, from just above the ferry, through the basin, and up to join the Manilla Creek Road just east of the Coulee Dam. My car’s navigation system suggested to look as a better option than retracing our way back to the ferry area, so I forged ahead. The birding was passable, adding Gray Partridge, and a number of small passerines including Horned Lark and Bewick’s Wren to my Ferry life list, but the road got sketchy and pretty steeply uphill in the last 2-3 miles. I took over driving from Marian half way through the loop, and was glad it was me not her that got us stopped on the icy steep two-track detour around a washed out main road part way up the hill. With some backing up and trying again a few times I managed to skid the way up the hill and we made it without help, but it was really dicey for a while. Memory accomplished.
My goal was to push my county lists over 100 in Spokane and Lincoln Counties, and closer in Whitman and Ferry. This was done, ending at 102 for Spokane, 101 for Lincoln, but only 89 for Ferry (minimal effort) and 71 for Whitman (weather obstructed effort).
Overall a nice get away. The Hampton Inn & Suites in Spokane was great, clean easy and affordable.