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| Sagebrush Sparrow |
I was happy with this picture. As my photos have gone, this falls in the not-half-bad category. And this was a not-half-bad trip. Beautiful weather, easy navigation, good birds, and some honest-to-goodness restoration.
But how did I get there to see that bird?? I saw sunup in Douglas County, but it's worth noting that some time around 10 PM, I was still sitting with my kids in Renton. We'd called it quits on an evening of playing cards, and the conversation had shifted to "What are the Good Changes that have happened in your life because of COVID?"
This was purely their construction. I think this is typically the kind of conversation one would force on kids to help them recognize silver linings, etc., but the kids pulled this one right out of the blue on me, and they were ready to talk. They shared what they shared; I shared what I shared; too much more gets a little personal, but I feel like I found at least one common thread. Similar to COVID itself, we all have things in our life that are most likely to run their course with a little rest, and a little isolation. Not everything falls in this category - Lord knows there are mental health and other personal challenges that are best met with close, frequent support from others. But still, it was interesting to see how much the kids valued the space they had for a time. Space to just be themselves, and reflect, to grow and decide.
Weird way to start off a birding blog, but yaknow. . . later when I explain that I set off for Eastern Washington on three hours of sleep, or when I explain that I never really got out to look for owls this time around. . . it helps put the pieces together. For gosh sakes, maybe these other times where I've been out the door quicker, it has begged the question, "Don't you have better things to do with your time?" I do. Many of them revolve around those two amazing young people who help my growth as much as I try to help them with theirs. Work even sneaks its way into this trip.
A big year (or whatever you would call this close cousin of a big year that I'm doing this year) has some immense value. It does push the boundary at times with cost/reward considerations - and I'm not talking money here. Sitting now on the other side of the trip, it's nice to say that I have zero regrets about birds missed due to other obligations. Easy to say because... it was a nice trip, but it's still worth saying. Balance is okay.
Back to our regularly scheduled program
2 AM. I was up at 2 AM, ready to hit the road. Not completely ready, but mostly ready. While I would normally have been working to get my camping stuff ready, especially for an April trip, when more campgrounds would be open. I didn't need to this time around. Some writing work had been offered in the week leading up to the trip - short notice work that would mean working a little during the trip, and working with WIFI. When the project pay exceeds the cost of a hotel room, it becomes very easy to make this adjustment.
I wanted to see the sun rise over the sage in Douglas County.
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| Sunrise over the sage - Douglas County |
I followed Road 24 West until it took its sharp bend Southward, bringing it entirely into Grant. I parked the car, stepped out and listened. First off, I want to say that it was cold. I recall my car was telling me that it was 18 degrees outside, although this hardly seems plausible. As noted, I was on three hours of sleep, and my car may have similarly been a little groggy at 6 AM. But I know for a fact that it was a bit brisk!
As I listened in the twilight, I could hear the sage birds were anything but groggy. Brewer's Sparrows (106), and Vesper Sparrows (107) were the most noticeable songs on both sides of the road. The numbers in parentheses, incidentally, are the running tally for the year. They appear chronologically here, but can also be found taxonomically on the page at right, "Running Tally and Needs List". These birds are ones whose songs are pretty familiar, despite the fact that I don't hear them annually.
Vesper is a little similar to a Song Sparrow, but the beginning is distinctive. For me it had always been "Baa Baa Black Sheep", and then it kind of trails off into a complex run from there. Michael, a birder from the wet side of the state where I live, described it as "Baa Baa Black Sheep Idon'tremembertherestofthewords", which fits pretty well. Brewer's gives an insect-like trill that kind of reminds me at times of a sprinkler. You know how sprinklers can be set to move through an arc (tikka tikka tikka tikka), and then move back (br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r)? They sound like the second part. A little. To me. These are often personal things, but it works for me!
Western Meadowlark, American Robin, and even a Spotted Towhee joined in. I have to say that this hour right around dawn was the busiest time for singing by far. I got to hear songs from all of these birds later in the day, but it did become more sparse.
Just past a cattle guard, I found a little road/trail leading North into the Douglas County half of the area I was in. I looked this over pretty carefully, as I don't want to be a scofflaw with private property. As I walked, the fence on my left had No Trespassing signs that kept me thinking that I was in the "not trespassing" section, as it were.
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| Phlox (species?) |
At my feet, I found a few different flowers in bloom. I figured it was only the start of the wildflower show in the sagebrush.
I got within view of a little marsh and pond, but started to sense that this was the end of the road, or something close to it, so I walked it back to the car, and went East to C road. This road turned out to be pretty productive! I got a chance to see the sparrows I'd only heard earlier in the morning, and I also found my first Sagebrush Sparrow (108), and Sage Thrasher (109) for the year. My brain explodes when it gets a hold of unfamiliar songs, and this was a treat on both counts.
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| Sagebrush Sparrow |
I honestly really loved the Sagebrush Sparrow song. It's a mumbly song that rises and falls. It has the same feel of like. . . something someone would sing while washing dishes, possibly with a song they enjoy but one where they don't know all the words. I loved it. The Sage Thrasher was a fun find. It's a code 1 bird in the county, so not a huge surprise, but I don't get to see and hear them all that often.
And just to reassure the reader, that my normal standards of bird photography have not been cast aside:
Vesper Sparrow (It honestly hurts my eyes to look at this one... my eyes are trying to make it focus)
Brewer's Sparrow
Sage Thrasher
Yep. I could have taken more, but I was both happy, and antsy to Ease on Down the Road.
Ponds and Lakes in Eastern Douglas County:
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| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
This is where I was headed after my trip through the sage (which was, incidentally, South and a little West of this area). There's actually a green area due South of 4, and almost due West of 6 where I stopped to pick through a blackbird flock. This gave me two new species for the year, Yellow-headed Blackbird (110), and Brewer's Blackbird (111).
Atkins Lake, my first stop, confused me a bit. I had al this water at 1 on the map, but Atkins Lake is technically at 2... and it was just damp mud. I was certain that someone had moved the lake. The motives and methods for moving lakes ran through my mind as I continued North.
6th and N NE was a nice bit of water with some promising mud, but no new birds. I was at this point looking for several possibilities: Cinnamon Teal, Virginia Rail, Wilson's Snipe, Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs, Northern Shoveler, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Spotted Sandpiper, Sandhill Crane, Snow Goose, and Greater White-fronted Goose. With all of these possibilities, I was getting a little discouraged as I went from pond to pond, usually finding some American Wigeon, some coots, some Redheads, and some Ring-necked Ducks.
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| Jolly's Pond and many many ducks |
My last stop was the Highway 17 pond. Yep, no other name for it, and it's not even the only pond on Highways 17! But this was worth the stop, as I found one of the true target birds of the trip: Dunlin (112).
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| Dunlin - Black bellies visible |
I'd made a decision to come a little earlier in April in part because these Code 3 birds seemed to be a little more common earlier in the month. I'm expecting more shorebirds to be out there in May, and fall migration ought to be a bonanza, but this was a satisfying find.
Not what I expected
I spent the next few hours on a pretty wide exploration in the East part of the county. First I went down towards the Ankeny Boat Launch. . . again. I'd been disappointed by this spot every single time this year. It's a corner of Banks Lake that is just inside Douglas County, and Banks Lake has some amazing birds swim through over the course of a year. . . But my expectations were low.
As I came down Highway 2, I could see the lake in front of me, with Highway 2 cutting along the Southern edge. I was able to see something pop up out of a pothole lake on the South side of the highway (all Grant County), and pulled over to get binoculars on it. Great Egret! (113) This one puzzled me a little, as I figured I'd have to wait until May to stumble across one, but these birds are kind of set up to surprise. They have been moving their way Northward into the state over the last few decades, slowly increasing in abundance and range over time. A little peek through eBird later showed that there have been sightings on the Columbia down in Yakima County within the past week or two, so I was okay with this in the end.
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| For the handful of people that love knowing *exactly* where the county lines are for these situations |
The rest of this time was spent following my GPS to what it told me were lakes. Certainly there were some that were visible from the road, yes? Noooooope. Time and time again, I ended up at a gate. The final stop was near these enormous lakes off of Road W:
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| Road W - East of Highway 17, Douglas County |
I could see the lakes, and I could see the road running along the South side of the West Lake. I could even hear the crazy chainsaw buzz of Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the wetlands surrounding the lake. I passed a fellow at the house you can see right at the end of W... and then saw what was clearly looking like a driveway. I stopped, turned around, and rolled down the window.
"Can I help you?"
"Well, I'm a birdwatcher, and I was just following my GPS, and I thought. . ."
I paused, and reached out through The Force, giving my hand a gentle turn through the air,
"... I could just drive through here and take a look at the lake."
...
"Yeah, the county road ends there." The man pointed to the spot where I'd turned around, showing absolutely no signs of susceptibility to Jedi Mind Tricks. This was all for the better. I nodded, taking just long enough to give him a chance to offer, but there were, to be honest, many more places to explore. I earnestly wished him a good day and turned it back around.
Highway 17
Once I got to the Highway again, I was a little torn. I still have the Northeast corner of the county to explore! But I still had some birds to find along the highway here (and down some side roads) that were a little more pressing.
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| A lot of this along Highway 17 |
This, admittedly, is being written three days after the fact, and there are some things that make it a little challenging to get the chronological stuff right here. East Foster Creek runs along Highway 17, and gave me a little handful of birds. But these birds were interrupted by side trips, first up Leahy Cutoff Road, and then up Hayes Road. So with that in mind, I'll address the Highway 17 birds first.
Many ducks were seen in the little sloughs, ponds, and flooded fields, and this finally led to the discovery of a Cinnamon Teal (114). I wish I could have gotten a picture, but there are simply points on this highway where there's not even a way to pretend that it's safe to pull over. At another stop, I was able to get a couple Greater Yellowlegs (115), followed by one... then a dozen... Wilson's Snipe (116) flushing from an adjacent field. An American Pipit (117) called, and landed in some mud for me to round out this search.
I tried for Virginia Rail several times to no avail... but I'm going to find one. :)
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| Mountain Bluebird - Leahy Cutoff Road |
Oh boy. I've been up here before. Many people have. This was The Spot to go get Greater Sage-Grouse in the state, but the lek where they would display in the spring has not had grouse for at least a couple years now. This would have been a gimme about a decade ago. There are still GRSG in the county, but they're a bit scattered, and found through some combination of diligence and happenstance. I still enjoyed some Harriers, Vesper Sparrows, Sage Thrashers, and a nesting Mountain Bluebird.
Hayes Road Pond
The map tells me that the creek here is Deep Creek, and it gave me a few new birds for the year. There were plenty of ducks, but still no Northern Shovelers! Over the pond, there were a handful of swallows, including Violet-green, Northern Rough-winged (118), and a single Barn Swallow (119). As I was getting ready to leave, two Turkey Vultures (120) flew over the little river valley.
Packwood Memorial Cemetery
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| Ponderosa Pines - Packwood Cemetery |
What a neat neat stop. The setting is remote, the habitat is beautiful, and it's a place with some history. I found sections that were completely dressed up with recent deliveries of flowers, and other graves with dates going back to early in the last century. One of these hit me hard, "Baby" born April 11, 1914, and dying just over a year later.
There were so many little connections, and it was something else to think of how many April 11ths had passed in this place since this couple enjoyed a brief year with another person. I've lost a son, and have two kiddos who, if you hadn't gathered from the start of this post, I am rather fond of.
Totally out of context? But the kids have also been dragging me through a musical journey lately - if you've got kids, for gosh sakes let them do this and find out why the songs have meaning for them - but one song, written about a different kind of loss, from the great poet Ms Taylor Swift, included the lines:
"There'll be happiness after you. But there was happiness because of you too. Both of these things can be true. There is happiness." These trips are pretty quiet affairs, so there was time to think about those lines in the context of loss, and I enjoyed their simple beauty, especially in this place.
Wind chimes were dappled over one of the trees - the various arrangements of notes somehow not in conflict with each other. I shot my son a text, as he's always enjoyed wind chimes. After a little tour of the cemetery itself, I started to look and listen for some birds. White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch (121) were some of the first finds, along with a handful of Hairy Woodpeckers. Western Bluebird (122) calls were heard in the cemetery, and then seen along the road as I finally packed it up and continued up Central Ferry Canyon Road.
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| I imagined a White-headed Woodpecker coming to visit these cones |
Dyer Hill
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| Hey! I know that tree! |
Can you have a favorite tree in a county? Not like... a favorite kind of tree, but literally a favorite tree? If we're allowing it, I submit this tree right here. You can go back to February to see it in the snow. I had to stop and shoot it then, and I had to shoot it again this day. I may have to make a habit of this.
Matt and I got stopped in our tracks on Dyer Hill back in February, in a road that was not much more than a snow bank dotted with street signs. I had been up here before, but maybe I had just gone up without enough focus, and I had gotten pretty turned around. This was years back, but on this day, I had a general sense of where I was going, and the GPS to confirm my choices as I went. South a little, East a little, Southeast for a little. I knew where I was going, and the roads made it easy driving.
What the heck was I doing on Dyer Hill? In complete honesty, it was to find a dang pheasant. . . or a partridge. Either one. These are both code 2 birds in the county, they're both found in like... all the places I've been all year, but they've been hiding. April is early to call out a nemesis bird. . . but these were the two contenders for sure. Which one would give in and let me find it? Which one would be stubborn? I will go into no further details, because I know my audience may love birds, and I really do as well, but I'll just say that my frustration led to some culinary thoughts regarding pheasant and partridge.
The top of the two pictures above shows what most of this landscape looks like. Giant rocks littered randomly around these fields. I know that they are erratics left behind by glaciers more than a few years back, but they are the things of mythology. Had I lived here a good few thousands of years ago, I absolutely would have come up with a story about the great Rock Fight of the Gods. The bottom picture? It's just the sky. My good friend Todd has looked through my blog pictures before, and scoffed at nearly any picture that included too much of the sky for his tastes. "People already know what the sky looks like. You should have cut it off down here." This one's for him. :)
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| Northern Shrike |
It's April, and one bird I wanted was a Loggerhead Shrike. They're more common in sage country, so when I came across this character over a wheat field, I knew I should probably get some photos. The thing is. . . I really don't know that much about birds. This is a secret that has likely been revealed to some as they have read through this blog, but let me now be really clear on this point. Fortunately, I have a pretty good sense of my weak spots, so I got some pictures to help me sort out whether this was a Loggerhead Shrike, or just a Northern Shrike that was delaying the "Northern" thing for a few more weeks.
Among other sites, this one proved to be pretty helpful. The bird here has some barring on the breast, and also has a mask that looks good for Northern Shrike. Looking at the two of them on the afore-linked site, I think I decided that the Northern Shrike looks like it's wearing a good bit of mascara. Too much? I don't make those kinds of judgements. But the Loggerhead looks like it was wearing an equal amount, and then had a good cry, with all of the inconvenient running that ensues. This bird has quite a mask going, but it's under control. Northern Shrike.
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| Brewer's Blackbirds: Male (left) and female (right) - Dyer Hill |
I did come across a farm with some more blackbirds to pick through. This batch included Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, as well as a single Brown-headed Cowbird (123).
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| One of the pictures that gets close to showing the beauty of this place. This times a large number. |
Down to the Columbia
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| McNeil Canyon Road |
On my way down McNeil Canyon Road, I may have been driving like a birder, and the guy behind me was driving like someone who is frustrated with someone who is driving like a birder, so I pulled off the road. It seemed like a nice enough spot, so I rolled down my window, and heard among other birds, a Mountain Chickadee (124). This is a Code 1 bird, so I'm sure I'll have a chance to enjoy more of them as the year goes along, but surprisingly this (even after the next day or two) was the only one for the year through April.
From here it was just the usual drive through Orondo to East Wenatchee. I had one occasion to stop for an Osprey, but otherwise was ready to wrap things up for the day.
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| Osprey (125) |
I rolled into the Cedars Inn - It may have been 6 or 7 on this fair Sunday evening. I knew I should get some work done, but I was getting a little tired. I also realized that I didn't know what time Union Hill Cider Company was closing for the day, and I had some cider to pick up from them. I looked online and found they were not going to be open again until Friday. I left a long rambly voicemail (when am I *not* long and rambly?) to see if there would be a way to pick things up, and got a call back within the next 30 minutes or so.
The caller, one of the owners, let me know that he could meet me in the morning. I asked how early, and he said he was usually up by 5 or 6 in the morning. Got me thinking about how that might be normal hours for people in a large part of the county. We got set up for the next day, and I set my alarm for a ridiculous hour of the morning, deciding that the work would have to wait for a time when I was not deliriously tired.
I slept easily, immediately, and hard at the end of a lovely day.
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| Promises of apples everywhere I went |
(Comical editorial note: It just sunk in that my Egret sighting was not on the 11th, but on the 12th! This after I looked at my total at the end of this day, and thinking it was one higher than it should have been. the same story happened, but I'll note when it happened the next day. Is history ever an accurate representation of events? Maybe not, but I tried!)
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