January 3rd - Winter Birding on the Waterville Plateau

Owl O'clock

It's January in a Big Year, what time would you expect me to get up?

I packed up my things at the Cedars Inn, and grabbed breakfast (available at the desk at 4:30 A.M. - a microwavable Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowl). My first stop was attempt number three for the Barred Owl at the Apple Capital Loop Trail. I walked a little, hooted a little, and eventually gave up on it. So many sightings have come up for this bird before and since - looks like I may have a  nemesis bird on my hands. :)

Badger Mountain

In a conversation the previous evening, I had been told there was a lot of snow on Badger Mountain. "On the roads?" I asked. "Oh no, just in general. The roads are clear."

This was. . .mostly true. I grew up driving in Yakima, where we did learn how to drive in snow. Nonetheless, it's been a while over on the wet side of the state, and I am just so out of practice. Suffice it to say that the intermittent ice and snow on the roads made my knuckles intermittently white. 

Moon in Virgo - Badger Mountain

I did work hard to apply all of the physics and other wisdom I'd gotten over the years. Keep your speed going into a hill. Don't for the love of God stop midway up a hill. Keep the speed down in general. Easy on the brakes. Once I started seeing some trees near the top, I stopped periodically when it made sense to do so, and called for owls. No Barred Owls, but I was still happy to get a Great Horned Owl (53) responding near the top. I just now took a peek - this was also my 146th life bird in the county, and it seemed like 150 would be very reachable during the day. 

Slight Change in Plans

It's barely worth mentioning, but it does help fill out the picture of what the heck I'm doing out there all day: I had planned to meander down Badger Mountain, stopping to explore at the Ski Area, and at several other points to look and listen for some forest birds. Nope. Nopeity nope nope no. With the road conditions being as interesting as they were, I decided that making my way down to Waterville was the wise choice. I did stop for a picture or two: 

More owls!

Man, that was my hope, but the famed Lamoine Windbreak - home to Long- and Short-eared Owls proved to be a little challenge. I did get there! Here's the path I took, as well as I can recall:

You can kind of see how I thought I was going to go straight there. It's just a grid of roads, so what would stop me from just heading North, and heading East as needed? 

I mean. . . 95% chance I make it through that just fine. Especially if I keep my speed good... down an icy hill... with a dip at the bottom. I just accepted that I would get to see more of Douglas County, and detoured back towards Highway 2, as shown. 

What the map above doesn't show is that I ran into the highway right at the little town of Douglas.

I saw afterwards on eBird that there is a little wetland on the South side of the highway here. Coming from the North, I had a chance to see this absolutely lovely church. I also found some brushy brush around a bend with some Juncos, as well as 5 American Tree Sparrows (54). A flock of Eurasian Collared Doves was there in the neighborhood, as well as a single Mourning Dove (55).

American Tree Sparrows: Douglas

These were definitely a hoped-for bird for the day. The Waterville Plateau is home to a lot of neat winter birds that are normally easier to find farther North. These sparrows definitely fall into that category, although they are found here and there across the state in winter.

Heading East on 2, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Farmer Community Hall. I may have misread a news story from back when the fires hit in September, and thought this had burned down. I couldn't find any stories with those details presently, but it does appear to be in good shape!

I turned here, and went up towards Withrow, keeping my eye out for Gray Partridge in the fields as I drove. I eventually passed a power pole with another plateau specialty.

Rough-legged hawk

Rough-legged Hawks (56) are just gorgeous birds. Honestly, this picture may not have been the first one I saw. There were a handful seen soaring around the fields. Horned Larks (57) were also seen as I got closer to Mansfield, turning West on Road 8 to check out the windbreak. 

Lamoine Windbreak

This shows the line of trees where the -eared Owls like to roost, and people have pictures of both from here over the last month. I came up empty. I don't know if it was optics, or just a lack of skill, or a testament to the ability of these owls to hunker down. It is likely all three. But I did give it the college try, and slowly scoped through all of the trees as well as I could from both sides. Just means that I'll have to come back!

Gratuitous landscape shots

Private Property

I did enter the year with one private landowner who had given me free reign to step onto his property, camp there if I wanted to, and explore at will - my brother!  A few years back, he purchased a piece of land in Douglas County, and I thought I'd at least go and take a peek. 

It's a bit North from Lamoine, and I found my first Northern Harrier (58) on the way. I had actually considered camping here for a night, although logistically at this point, I couldn't figure out how I could quite end up here at the end of the day. The views continued down to a peek-a-boo view of the Columbia. Just out of principle, I sat at the end of what might loosely be called his "driveway", and waited until I heard a bird. A Common Raven eventually called, and I continued on my way. 

Even more owls!

Okay, not letting you down this time - read on, because I'm on the Waterville Plateau in winter - one of the best places in the state to look for Snowy Owls. As many as three had been seen at Atkins Lake, back towards Highway 2, so I went East through Mansfield, and turned South on Heritage Road. 

Erratic boulder from Heritage Road

At this point, I wasn't stopping all too frequently. Having found American Tree Sparrows, I didn't necessarily need to stop at any brushy spots as much as I needed to push on to where the owls had been seen. I was on high alert for Gyrfalcons as well - a species I've never seen in my life, and one that is sometimes found along this stretch. What could possibly get me to stop the car besides that??

I'm sorry if badgers are commonplace animals for you, but I've never seen one in my life. To have one right on the side of the road was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me. He did hop back into his burrow, popping his head back out to pose for me. 

As I believe I explained at the start of the blog, there are reasons besides birds that I run around and do these years. This is one of those reasons. 

Okay, owls. Focus, Tim. I got to Atkins Lake Road, and thought it looked a little sketchy. So I continued all the way down to Highway 2, stopping and scoping piles of rocks in hopes of spying a Snowy Owl perched on top of one. I eventually got to 2, and continued East, checking things from the road. At one stop, I listened, and rather than the tinkling of Horned Larks, I heard a rattle call. My brain, which I had prepared to pick out a Lapland Longspur thought... "Lapland Longspur!"

But honestly, this sounded like an awful lot of Lapland Longspurs... and on closer inspection, my eyes politely corrected my ears. Snow Buntings! (59) I haven't heard either species all that frequently, but a peek into my Sibley's explained that Snow Buntings also have a rattle call, but it's a bit sweeter sounding, which fit what I was hearing pretty well. There were a handful of them with this flock of Horned Larks - all just far enough away that I couldn't get a picture. 

Without any owls in sight, I decided to return to Atkins Lake Road to at least see if I could find any people, and maybe get a lead on finding an owl. The road turned out to be much more drivable than I expected. Even when muddy, these roads aren't all that bad. As I crested a. . . well, a crest on the road, I saw people on the other side of the dip, and they were clearly birders. As I pulled up the binoculars, I saw what they were looking at. A flock of 100 or so Snow Buntings was sitting in the road, and they were getting pictures. 

Snow Buntings, photo courtesy of Bob Betz

As soon as the birds had flown, and the coast was clear, I continued to the couple, hailing from Walla Walla. We had both come up empty so far, so we exchanged numbers and planned to let each other know if we found anything. 

Continuing over to road M, I came across two women also out searching for the owl. We checked in with each other on sightings for the morning, and were all about to hop into cars and head out to new spots when. . . and this never happens, I swear. . . I found it. 

I could zoom that picture in so that you could see a larger white blob, of course, but do we need to do that? I stopped the women and helped them find it, and gave a call to the birders from earlier. Again, the larger lens prevailed, and I got permission to include the shot: 

Snowy Owl (60) - photo courtesy Bob Betz

I think all of us in the group had been expecting to find a Snowy Owl on a pile of rocks, but we weren't  really complaining. While it did move its head a few times while we were there, that was about it for activity. Kind of par for the course during the day for these beautiful owls. Satisfied with the looks I'd gotten, I departed for Banks Lake.

Banks Lake, Ankeny Boat Ramp, Highway 17

A teeny little corner of Banks Lake is in Douglas County. There have been sightings of Redheads, among other waterfowl I was hoping to find. There wasn't much to be found there, so I headed back to Highway 17. 

Bridgeport was my next destination, and it was a goodly long ways North from there, so I just kept my eyes on the hills and posts. As I type that. . . I realize that I had found a Northern Shrike (61) in the morning. Rather than insert and edit all of the numbering, we'll just note it here. Shrikes and Prairie Falcons were the birds I most expected I might find. 

This spot. I know I've stopped here before, and my brain twitched with a little fear as I stopped, made my way as far off of the road as possible, got out and looked at the ducks in this little wetland. I found a Green-winged Teal (62), but. . . this was not a safe stop. I will revise this method of exploring this wet area in the future... to ensure I have a future.

This landscape was on the East side of Highway 17 during nearly the entire drive - just amazing. The lumpy hills topped with steep cliffs looked like a good spot for Golden Eagles, and I did end up finding one (63). No picture here, in part because it was doing what Golden Eagles do, apparently. My Sibley's says that Golden Eagles will "contour" along hillsides, and it made sense once I got a chance to see it. The bird dropped in very close to the hills and just coasted along, rising and falling with the undulations. I lost it a few times, and then refound it, but there was just no way a picture was going to happen. 

Bridgeport - Lake Pateros - home

The camera died here, right after this picture.

Oh wait. That's a lie. One more from the Chief Joseph Dam Visitor Center.

This one was to show the burned areas, just a reminder of what came through here in September. I hopped through Bridgeport, stopping for a little walk through the neighborhoods, listening for a Blue Jay that has been sighted there. I came up empty, but did find 8 billion House Sparrows, and one (likely well fed) Sharp-shinned Hawk (64).

My final stop as the light started leaving was Lake Pateros, a wide area of the Columbia, where I had several Common Loons, 9 billion backlit ducks, a few Herring Gulls (65), and a Ring-billed Gull (66).

At this point, the sun was getting a little low, and I was feeling pretty satisfied with the trip. Although I had my camping gear fully ready in the car, I decided that heading home was the best plan of action. I came down along the Columbia, ate in Cashmere, stopped to collect some snow for a friend, and made it home before 10.