March 15th - Douglas Creek to the Columbia

 

Good morning!

Fun. I hadn't tried to drop a video in here before, but it looks like this worked. It isn't much, but listen closely, and you'll hear one of the Western Screech-Owls that was hanging around my campsite. It was bird number 98 for the year, and a code 4 bird (see the page for "Douglas County Birds - by the numbers" for the meaning of the codes.) Actually, sorry parenthetical note, I do want to talk about code 4 birds for a second. 

Code 3 birds are birds that are seen annually, but are a bit of a challenge to find. They either have a very specific location, small window where they come through, small numbers, or some combination of the three. Code 4 birds are birds that are not seen annually, but have 5 or more sightings historically. Ostensibly, this means that they don't live there... but you'll find them on occasion. 

This might be my favorite kind of bird to find - there are actually a couple bread crumbs of patterns to follow. In this case it was a single eBird sighting from a few years back. I figured it was worth a try, as I'd put in a good effort looking for Barred Owls the previous day. But I went to bed without hearing any Western Screech-Owls. 

These guys (as you can hear) are so soft and quiet with their calls that I was a little worried I was dreaming. But once every. . . half hour? hour? Who knows as I slept in my tent. I heard them calling again briefly. Some time around 6, I decided to get up.

Getting up out of a sleeping bag on a cold morning of camping is always a Big Decision. I met the resistance with a long walk through the plan, visualizing it to the end, where I was standing in the sunlight, holding a cup of coffee and eating some oatmeal as I listened to the canyon waking up. It was finally compelling enough to get up - from preheating my clothes with my own body heat in the sleeping bag, to the walk in the dark up to my car for the coffee. I was lucky enough to get the recording, quite a challenge given the intermittent calls. 

Down the canyon

End of the road for now

Oh! I also had Chukar (99) calling in the morning. These birds called while it was dark, and then not again. I feel like I'm always missing them, and maybe that is a piece of an explanation for it. I may start looking for them at owl o'clock.

I knew that Slack Canyon only went so far South before it dead-ended, but I'd never gone beyond this part of the road, so I did a morning walk south along the road. It was a decently wrenny morning -  Bewick's and Canyon Wrens continued, and I even had a Pacific Wren singing in the brush, a code 3 bird that had been a challenge to find in February. 

There were several primitive campsites along the way. I may try one of them down the road, although I do feel a little romantically attached to my campsite, more so because of the owls from the morning. I hit a couple washouts along the way - places where it looked like all of Badger Mountain was sending its melted snow to run in a river over the trail. One of these was kind of passable for me, but the second was not. I have a hunch the "actual" washout is farther down the trail, but that will be a question for a drier day.

Up the canyon

I got camp picked up... actually pretty quickly. I'm pretty happy with my tent deconstruction routine. I then drove the car a little bit up the road to a signed trailhead, and thought I'd see how far North this would take me. 

They've got great signs on the trail. Right now, I'm trying to find a way to present this fact like... "You really should go look at them!" This is largely to cover up for the fact that my picture of this trail sign was botched a little bit, but I'll present it anyway:

And I know you're wondering... what kind of an idiot even bothers to post pictures this poor? This kind of idiot right here! Even I am excited to go back and see what the top of the sign says though. I'll count it as a good movie trailer. 

The geology of the place is pretty amazing. It's a good place to see columnar basalt and pillow basalt up close. The pillow basalt similarly had some signage explaining that these rocks formed deep underwater. Like... under the sea. And here I was on top of a huge plateau, next to a mountain on that plateau, walking alongside a creek that had cut down through the rock layers (although most of the work had been done by ice age floods here, I believe).

Douglas Creek Trail with pillow basalt

But this used to be under the sea. 

I looked at the rocks with new respect. 

The final new year bird for the day... number 100... drum roll please for the Century Bird!

Marsh Wren - 100

On the one hand, I do want to apologize. On the other hand. . . am I taking pictures so that people will know what a Marsh Wren looks like? Pictures to have a pretty picture of a Marsh Wren? Documentation? At what point do any of these wishes bring my day to a halt? Folks, we're about a quarter of the way through the year, and hopefully no more than halfway through the birds I'm going to find this year. The tour bus is making a stop now, and it might be a good time to exit! :D But if you stay after Marsh Wren, I promise to at least keep typing about these trips.

The rest of the day

I left Douglas Creek, and made a perfunctory stop at Ankeny Boat Launch. It's a tiny little corner of Banks Lake that is in Douglas County. One could imagine that all kinds of birds float over from Grant County now and then. Why there are even reports which have included some neat birds there. I just happened to stop and find no birds there at all. This approximately matched my first visit there in January. But in this kind of year, I have to stupidly believe that this is a wonderful site... and it's just been bad timing. 

Highway 17 heads North from here towards Bridgeport. This is a neat little stretch with the occasional pond. Some of them have names, and I may learn them, but I'm not sure this particular one had a name, where I stopped and found my first Redheads (101) of the year.

These are ponds I'll be visiting in April, with dreams of shorebirds and a few more ducks (Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler). Many of them are well placed for a car to pull safely off of the road and view from the car. 

After a bend to the Northwest, Highway 17 is accompanied by East Foster Creek for a long stretch. The creek winds back and forth under the highway at times, and just really looked like it might be hiding a Virginia Rail or two in several places. I collected no observations to support this belief.

I did at one point follow my vehicle's GPS, which placed a blue blob on the map down a side road - Hayes Road. I arrived, and was pleasantly surprised by some Tundra Swans. 

Tundra Swans - Hayes Lake

I just named that Hayes Lake because it was on Hayes Road. Don't ask the locals for directions to Hayes Lake. 

I stopped at Bridgeport Bar, hoping to find some sparrows, or perhaps some geese. A Harris's Sparrow had been seen here recently, and Lincoln's and Golden-crowned would not have been a surprise. I found White-crowned and Song Sparrows, but nothing unusual. As I headed towards the water, I saw a raft with hundreds upon hundreds of American Wigeon. A careful look through them pulled up two Eurasian Wigeons (102).

I looked at a Eurasian Wigeon in my binoculars, then scanned over to the other. I put the binoculars down and looked at the giant raft, and squinted. I picked up my camera and pointed it at the raft, enjoying the view of hundreds of little dots. I put the camera down and looked at the Eurasian Wigeon again in binoculars. Then I just gave up, pointed the camera in the general part of the raft where I thought the Eurasians were, moved the camera a little left, a little right, and shot some pictures figuring certainly I'd have a picture of at least one of them. . . 

You're free to look through the pictures for a Eurasian Wigeon as well. You're looking for a male with red on the face, rather than green. I'm not encouraging this because I need help finding it. It's not there. But it's just a chance to experience this as I experienced it, to say "Wow... he took pictures of  A LOT of birds that were not the birds he was aiming for. How...?"

It's nice at least to get a feel for how big these American Wigeon rafts can get. I'd only had relatively smaller groups so far this year, and was hoping to have some to pick through at some point. Eurasian Wigeons will find their way in with the Americans starting here in March, and increasingly in April before heading North.

The rest of the rest of the day

I saved the "best" for last. A Yellow-billed Loon had been sighted on the Columbia and had lingered around for several weeks. It had been seen as far south as Orondo, and as far North as the Pateros area, viewed from Starr Road in Okanogan County. A lot of people went off to chase this bird, and a lot of people found it. Others I spoke to spent much of a day wandering up and down the Columbia fruitlessly looking for the bird. 

Looking ahead to this trip, I realized the safest bet for finding the loon would have been to target it at the start of my trip. Looking back at this trip, I don't regret the plan at all. Had I started the trip with the YBLO and spent the good part of a day on a fruitless search. . . when would I have decided to stop looking? After an hour? Two? I left this bird for "dessert", I suppose. I ended up with no dessert, but that's fine. Actually, that's a lie. 

"Sir, I'm sorry, but we are all out of the Yellow-billed Loon this evening. Could we interest you in a Pacific Loon?"

In my wander up and down Starr Road, and to the Starr Boat Launch, I found many Western Grebes (103), Red-necked Grebes in breeding plumage, a California Gull (104), and a single Pacific Loon (105). The Pacific, while not quite as rare, was still a code 3 bird, and a happy find to finish the trip. These were on the far side of the Columbia, over in Douglas County - always an important consideration for a list like this, but also a reason why I have no pictures that I thought were worth including. . . and we already know where the bar is for me.  

I slipped back into Douglas County to follow the highway down to East Wenatchee. I grabbed two enormous bags of apples (a mix of Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, and Fuji) at 5 dollars each at. . . you know, that one fruit stand on Highway 97. The one with the money jar sitting out for people to drop cash in as they pick up their apples? Yes, that one.

And then home. 

Side/ending note: At one point I set my camera down...looked at the water for a bit... and then went merrily down the road about 5-10 miles... got out and looked at the water for a bit... and thought "I should take a picture". I then thought "Hm. Where's my camera?" As with the bags of apples, sitting in plain view on the side of the road, waiting for someone to just take them, my camera was not swept away by neer-do-wells. Phew!

March 13/14th - March Calmness

 

California Quail - the bar is here

The bar

While the quail above is indeed sitting on a bar, I should be clear - it is setting the bar for pictures on this trip. It was a wonderful trip, and restored the soul. I found some great birds, and have some nice stories to tell. But that quail was the first bird I shot with the camera on the trip. . . and the pictures only occasionally got better!

Saturday Night Drive

To be fair, it wasn't night. . . but I was ready to sleep. My week had begun with deadlines, had been filled with revisions, and ended with me leaving my computer in my backpack in the driveway as I departed. That tired. Writing a blog, I only have to haggle over wording with me, myself and I - a busy enough conversation, but not like conversations with clients and editors! My brain took a while to stop spinning - some good context for "what was he doing up at that hour?" as we make it through these posts. 

I did make it over in time to try for a bird I'd gotten wind of, a California Scrub-Jay. Near Rock Island (almost always my first stop!), a sighting had shown up on eBird. It read, "resident in neighborhood", which certainly grabbed my attention, given it was a code 4 bird (see Douglas County Birds - by the Numbers). 

Scrub-Jays are fairly loud birds, so I was hopeful. Nonetheless, arriving at the neighborhood, I experienced an all-too-common Douglas County realization: If it's on the river. . . it's probably private. In this case, it was a mobile home community. People were out enjoying the weather (60 degrees!) with a barbecue or two fired up. Most parking spots were designated "residents only", so my efforts here just ended up being a slow-but-not-so-slow-as-to-be-weird drive through the neighborhood with a window down and my ears open. No luck this time, but these birds will be a thought for later in the year.

"Sleep"

The Cedars - Always keeping it seasonal b'gosh

I would normally have a computer on hand, and any other notebooks I'd brought along on the trip, giving me a chance to sort through sightings and scribbled notes. But all of that had been left back home. A stop in the East Wenatchee Fred Meyer had provided me with a tiny little notebook for recording sightings - as inexpensively as any notebook could be procured, of course. I'm not all that picky. This, and two pens - G2 Pilots of course. Not picky but. . . they're never a wasteful purchase.

I dropped off fast and hard. I woke up 3-4 hours later. I tried to get the mind to quiet down from the week, but it was going to take some time. I may have gotten some more sleep at some point, but ultimately took it as an omen that I was going to have more time to look for owls. 

Looking for Owls

Barred Owl distribution - Seattle Audubon map available at Birdweb.org from Kelly Cassidy

These maps. Oh my goodness. Birdweb is a site maintained  by the Seattle Audubon Society, and this is where maps like this can be found for all species with regular patterns of distribution in the state. To my understanding, these maps are in part generated by the use of habitat data - streams, forest types, etc. - and are also informed by birders from across the state. The care, and the detail that goes into them never ceases to amaze me. 

In the Barred Owl map above, we see exhibit A. One reason that I wanted to search for Barred Owls on Badger Mountain is because Birdweb says they ought to be there. Exhibit B is a woman I spoke to at Union Hill Cider Company back in January. A resident on Badger Mountain, she told me that a Barred Owl had been resident along their driveway for years. Finally, after reading up on habitat, it sounded like Barred Owls preferred densely wooded areas with the occasional clearing. 

Redfield Road - Badger Mountain

This looked great! Admittedly, Redfield is a Road that had more clearing farther West than the star on the left, but the two stars would be the end of my walking and the start of daylight, and they seemed like a fine place to search for Barred Owls. 

I grabbed my breakfast fixings from the front desk at. . . 2 A.M.? It was early. I was so happy just to hear that the woman at the desk would be able to get juice and coffee ready for me as well as the breakfast bag. My careful notes actually tell me that my first stop was near the summit of Badger. There had been a Barred Owl sighting here before, so it was worth a stop. Northern Saw-whet Owl! Not a new bird for the year, but a nice surprise to hear the high, regular tooting. 

Redfield Road

Redfield Road itself is listed as open in April. It's a public road, but not maintained in the winter months, becoming a drive-at-your-own-peril situation at times, I'm sure. On this particular morning, it was easy walking. Better yet, the road was lined with snow throughout, providing enough ambient light to see as I walked West from my car down a new road.

There was nearly no wind. It was just quiet and beautiful. A pair of Great Horned Owls hooted back and forth with each other, a lower male and a higher female call that was present through most of the morning with two different pairs of owls. I took the road that veered North, down a short spur to a gazebo. Below was the ski area, and I realized that I was not at the end of Redfield! As I made my way back to the intersection, I heard and recorded a Northern Pygmy Owl (83). These are code 3 birds in the county, but not completely unexpected up on Badger Mountain. 

Just as a quick note, the number in parentheses following some bird names is just a tally of the number of species I have seen for the year. I had an asterisk next to my birds from February, as I was waiting to hear about a Wild Turkey I had recorded. Similar to the owl above, turkeys are an uncommon bird, but not totally out of place where we found it. Nonetheless, the recording did not warrant a follow-up email from the eBird reviewer for the area, and has just been left off of the map. As always, it would be nice to have a conversation about the bird, and I'll be sure to update this if it ever becomes a query. But for my list, I do feel good about the call. 

Just about halfway back to the intersection, I realized that one of the calls I was hearing, while similar to a Great Horned Owl, was actually a Long-eared Owl. (84). Simple single-note calls that I was also able to record. This one was admittedly a surprise for me. I associate these owls with dense thickets along streams and in gullies. That is typical winter habitat, but they breed in dense woodlands with open areas for hunting. That basically describes the place where I was owling!

Continuing up Redfield, I only occasionally stepped in mud, or a little bit of ice on the dirt road, covering up some slowly thawing water. In the end, the road had 9 individuals - 4 Great Horned Owls, 3 Northern Pygmy-Owls, and 2 Long-eared Owls. No Barred! It was nonetheless hard to complain about the morning. 

I'd like to make it back to look for Barred Owls, and maybe make it a little further West, since the BirdWeb map shows their range extending from the Columbia up Badger from the West. Perhaps more like this area, which I could drive to in future months: 

It also seems to have more open areas mixed in, with no lack of dense forest. Can't wait to try.

Redfield Road after sunup

American Robins and Spotted Towhees opened things up for the morning, but it turned out to be finches that were the most exciting additions. I'd had few finch species before March, only House Finch and American Goldfinch. During this walk, I'd add four more species!

The first was a nice surprise, Pine Grosbeak (85)! These are BIG finches, and have a full round sound. This morning the single bird was calling with a pretty-pretty..... pretty-pretty.....pretty-pretty, and I agreed. It called from a tree top, and I recorded it before it flew. After misses on California Scrub-Jay, and Barred Owl, it was nice to pick up a code 4 bird. 

I hope the lighting here reinforces that it was a beautiful morning. It as a little cold, but not overly so. Not a lot of light for good bird photos, even if the dense trees weren't obscuring them. Other finches added for the morning included Cassin's Finch (86), Pine Siskin (87), and Red Crossbills (88). The crossbills were also recorded, giving me a chance to figure out what type they were at home. They weren't the ones from home, clearly, because they said "chip" with a slight accent! Turned out to be type 2 - a form of the bird that feeds in Ponderosa Pines, primarily. 

View West from Redfield Road

Clark's Nutcracker (89), and Brown Creeper (90) also made appearances during the morning - both Code 3 birds. Red-breasted Nuthatches were common enough during the walk, but no Pygmy showed up. I do need those for the year, and they're common enough on Badger Mountain, so there will be a return visit! Throw Mountain Chickadee in to that category as well.

Badger Mountain Ski Area

As I got back to my car, I did stop at the Badger Mountain Ski Area for a brief picture. This place is sponsored by the Waterville Lions Club, and is run 100 percent by volunteer staff. 

No more skiing for the season, but sledding!

I am stuck on the 100 percent volunteer staff bit. What a beautiful thing. It's beautiful for many reasons, and if I started writing about it, I'd fall short. So in this case, I'll just leave that for the reader to ponder: Douglas County, with 2% the population of King County, has a ski area that runs on 100 percent volunteer staff. 

The site also touts that it offers the lowest-priced lift ticket in all of North America, so that's something to chew on as well.

Wires

As I left Badger Mountain, the birds I shot were often up on wires, so here we go:

Mountain Bluebird (91) - Lower Badger Mountain 

Western Meadowlark (92) - Farmer to Withrow

American Kestrel - Farmer to Withrow

Much of the snow had melted, so while there were occasionally some Horned Larks here and there, massive flocks, and bunches of Snow Buntings had similarly seemed to melt away. 

I set out on the Plateau with hopes of Gyrfalcon, Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Lapland Longspur, Common Redpoll, and Gray Partridge - all birds I've missed during the early parts of the year. With misses on all, some will have to wait for the next round of winter weather, as early as October. Some Rough-legged Hawks were still hanging around as well, which is always nice. 

Highway 172 took me from Highway 2 at Farmer up to Withrow.

Looking back at the Withrow Grain elevators from Grain Elevator Road

Dutch Henry Draw

Well, when I was driving it, I thought I was taking "Grain Elevator Road", and various back roads from Withrow to Mansfield. But my map has this area labeled as Dutch Henry Draw. The Waterville Plateau, despite the name, is generally a pretty dry place. This "draw" is a little depression in the landscape where ephemeral streams bring water towards Jameson Lake. Apparently it all ends at an even more ephemeral waterfall called Dutch Henry Falls. If I make it to the falls or ever find out who Dutch Henry is, you'll be the first to know, dear reader.

Horned Lark - Dutch Henry Draw

Here I was thankful for the passing of the snow, as the roads which would not have been so drivable were just easy gravel. Bare ground, sage, grasses, and the occasional bits of farm equipment dotted the landscape. These are the parts of the state where people often drive through as fast as they can, assigning words like "empty" and "ugly" to it without really appreciating the unique ecosystems. 

Western Meadowlark - Dutch Henry Draw

I'm excited to get back here in April, when flowers are back in bloom, but was content for now to listen to the Western Meadowlarks, and to imagine the Gray Partridge that other observers were able to find in the area. Those suckers, and "easy" code 2 species, may end up being my nemesis bird for the year. We'll see. 

"Fixer-upper" - Dutch Henry Draw

At one stop, I did get my first Say's Phoebe (93) of the year. It was flycatching from a post, while an American Kestrel made little sallies from an adjacent fence post. As I finally took C Road North towards Mansfield, I also found a little flooded field with some ducks, including my first Northern Pintails (94). 

Mansfield

It was time for lunch, and time to charge the camera battery. I stopped in Mansfield at Golden Grain Café and Spirits. This was around 11:00, and apparently just barely after, as I got a little pause when I asked for a Denver omelet. They were just moving from breakfast to lunch, but made an exception for me, since they were cooking up another that had been ordered shortly before. The omelet was great. "I don't want anyone leaving here hungry." I was told by the gal at the stove, and she got her wish. 

This. . . is not a political blog. The author here grew up in Yakima, and moved to the Seattle area, where his own political views have been shaped by the water he's been swimming in. All that said, I think the water you're swimming in has every right to inform your views. On that note, the political conversations going on around me were very welcome. Discussions ranged from racism to recycling, wind farms to "the idiot in the White House". 

These frustrations were being vented by people like me. People with kids like me. People who are working hard like me. Heck, the guy at the next table was even polishing off a Denver omelet - something we would whole-heartedly agree on. Life is hard for good people sometimes. The kind of difficulties are different in different places. I really didn't mind being a fly on the wall as they chatted about these difficulties, but. . . 

"Hey fellas, no political talk. . . we don't want people from out of town to feel unwelcome." This was from the same gal at the stove. I basically communicated what I communicated above - I really didn't mind, but they all were respectful, and changed topics, and not in a grudging manner. Similar to the ski area comments above, something about these interactions hit me right. Again, I'd like to elaborate on it as little as possible, and just describe what happened. I hope something hits you right as well. 

Nearly fruitless meandering on the Waterville Plateau

Oh man, it's nice to get that zing when you're looking for birds and find something neat, something new, something unexpected. Sorry, y'all, but it just was not that kind of afternoon! I started by cruising north from Waterville. I passed a couple of birders, and we checked in on what we'd seen. "Any partridge. . . ?" I asked hopefully, and got a positive response - down at Foster Creek, apparently, they had flushed one as they walked. 

Woohoo! Partridge! 

But I came up about as empty as this picture. I did make it to Foster Creek, and actually stopped the car at several points when I came across trees and gulleys, thinking it would be silly not to at least look for Sharp-tailed Grouse while in the area. I did pick up some Violet-green Swallows (95), which were a nice sign of spring, but not much else. 

Atkins Lake was my next destination, and I tried to make it interesting by following different roads South and East, stair stepping my way across the country side on gravel roads, thinking the plateau might still have any of these stubborn birds waiting for me. I got to Atkins Lake, and there wasn't even a lake waiting for me! Just a big muddy field. . . It was time to go somewhere new.

Douglas Creek

I honestly love this place. I'd been here before on a fall evening a few years back, and was very much looking forward to this return to Douglas Creek. The two pictures here... I mean just look at them again. As you're driving along the first road, do you have any sense that you're about to drop into a canyon like you seen in the bottom picture? The surprise of it is just great. It has a very platform-nine-and-three-quarters feel to it. 

I had emailed folks in February inquiring about the roads in, and was discouraged from trying them. On this occasion, just based on all of the roads I'd seen, I figured I'd give it a go. The worst case scenario would be a campground I couldn't use, and a night sleeping in my car in a beautiful place. 

Close enough

Slack Canyon Road was just fine until about a hundred strides short of the campsite. Good enough indeed. Some people did navigate through this little pond in the road over the course of the afternoon, but I was content to park on the side and ferry my stuff from car to campsite. Backpacking Lite, I suppose. 

I have been here twice, and I.. it just might be my favorite campsite. It's hard to tell, but the trees surrounding the site are apple trees. When I made my previous trip in the fall, it was just heyfreeapples. And it's fine to be suspicious about eating fruit off of a random tree in some hidden canyon in the middle of nowhere. Be suspicious. More delicious apples for me, thanks.

Not only that, but there has always been just enough fallen dry wood to have a little fire. Technology does not at present allow us to smellograph the smell of burning apple wood, and to then present the smellograph in ones blog for the enjoyment of all. It's just a heavenly smell. 

Canyon Wrens (96) called from the canyon walls. They've got a fun song that cracks me up a little. Bewick's Wrens, Hairy Woodpecker, California Quail, and even a Prairie Falcon (97) made themselves known as I set up camp and had a little dinner. As noted, a few people came through, dipping their tires into the water and continuing up the road, but all in all, it was a pretty solitary evening. I had been without a computer the night before, and now I was going without cell service either. No signal in this canyon. Somehow this just added to the charm of the place.

With nothing but the sound of water, a Great Horned Owl, and the occasional scurrying of wildlife outside as a soundtrack, my brain finally found some quiet. I let the March Calmness carry me into a long and deep sleep.