Reardan Davenport Field Trip Repot

Submitted by Ted Smith, Coeur d’Alene Audubon Chapter President

Seven hardy souls met at 7 am on Saturday, February 8, 2025 and headed out to Reardan for a day of birding. We were excited to have Jen, a new member, join us for the trip. The drive to Reardan was uneventful even with the falling snow and slushy roads. At Reardan we checked our Audubon Lake and found it rock solid. So, we headed towards Davenport on back roads looking for horned larks, snow buntings, and raptors. Snow buntings eluded us all day but we did get great looks at many horned larks. One of the day’s highlights was watching a raven steal a picked over carcass from a northern harrier. The harrier flushed from some roadside bushes and flew across the road and out into a wheat stubble field carrying what looked like a cottontail skeleton. A raven saw her and dove in and stole the skeleton (the harrier had eaten almost all the flesh off of it). It was kind of a Wild Kingdom moment.

We found a group of ravens and a juvenile bald eagle feeding on some type of carcass along with a few magpies. Raptors, with the exception of American kestrels, were in low numbers.  We did see several rough-legged hawks in a small valley near Rocklyn. A thorough search at the Davenport Cemetery failed to turn up the hoped for saw-whet owl. He was there, as evidenced by a fresh pellet in the snow, but we couldn’t get eyes on him in his very thick spruce tree.

All in all it was a very fun outing with enough birds to make it interesting and enough cold fresh air to help you appreciate the beauty of the day.