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| 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"
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| 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
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| Barred Owl distribution - Seattle Audubon map available at Birdweb.org from Kelly Cassidy |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| Mountain Bluebird (91) - Lower Badger Mountain |
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| Western Meadowlark (92) - Farmer to Withrow |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Western Meadowlark - Dutch Henry Draw |
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| "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.
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| 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.
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.
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