May 14th - Field Trip!

Bright and Early

Badger Mountain

I was up fairly early in East Wenatchee, packing up my things at the Cedars Inn to get out the door and over to Wenatchee for a 6 AM field trip. This morning, I went to collect the usual fare: a breakfast bag and the microwavable Jimmy Dean sandwich... "Or we can make you waffles." The clerk and I shared a moment of excitement here, as this was the sign - the one that proclaimed "Restaurant Operations are Returning to Normal." 

Who would have known we'd get to a place where I could attach that kind of importance to the simple act of dropping a couple frozen blueberry Eggo waffles into a toaster with a gloved hand? 

But I'll stand by it. It was a Significant Waffle.

I had a little time, so I popped over to Porter's Pond on the Columbia and picked up a Spotted Sandpiper (142 for the year list). 

The group met at a park and ride over in Wenatchee, with everyone trickling in by 6:15. It's always nice to meet new birders, and folks came from all parts of the state, and with all skill levels. Worth noting as well that a pleasantry called "the handshake" was present that morning, letting all know that the reports of its death were greatly exaggerated. We discussed vaccination progress within the group, and actually did some parking and riding from the park and ride. 

Our destination was Badger Mountain. It's hard to overstate how unique this habitat is in Douglas County. There's nowhere near this many trees in any other part of the county, or elevation. Add to this the location - on the West end of the county, where it's not too too far from the Wenatchee Mountains and other little ranges that trail down from the Cascades - giving some connectivity for some species that you just don't find in the basin.

Add some riparian corridors and extensive sage-steppe habitat, as well as native grasslands on the North side of the mountain, and you can see how productive a day could be on Badger.

Indian Camp Road

We began the trip on Indian Camp Road, specifically a sage-steppe area where we were hoping to find some of the typical sparrows, as well as Gray Flycatcher. We were not disappointed on any of these counts, picking up Brewer's Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, and Gray Flycatcher (143) all pretty quickly. Mourning Doves were calling as well - not always easy to find in the county with the invasion of Eurasian Collared-Doves!

In addition to being a new bird for the year, I have to say it was interesting for me to make a connection between Gray Flycatchers and sage. The first place I think of when I think of this bird (which I have heard and seen precious few times) is Satus Pass down in Klickitat County, which is just a little more treed. But the sage seemed to suit these guys just fine, and there were several calling and seen from our first stop.

Mark was pretty quick to get the scope on birds of interest as we went along, so there were opportunities to see the birds AND hear them at the same time, which is absolutely one of the best ways to get a song stuck in your head, so to speak. Western Meadowlarks filled most of the backing track for the morning music, and we even heard, but did not see, a few Vesper Sparrows, and a song that was suspected to be a Sagebrush Sparrow, but not well-confirmed. 

Indian Camp Road

Mountain Bluebird at nest

We hopped into cars and drove down the road a bit to a riparian area. This is where the year list really started to take off. We had Calliope Hummingbird (144) fairly early, and other birds (Yellow Warbler and Black-headed Grosbeak) called from down the road. I totally missed an Orange-crowned Warbler that several folks in the group saw. Bummer!

American Goldfinch, Lazuli Bunting (145), Western Wood-Pewee (146), Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Western Tanager (147), and numerous Cassin's Finches gave us good looks and listens as we walked. We even got to watch a Mountain Bluebird pair tending to a nest.

We added more birds as we walked: Wilson's Warbler (148), House Wren (149), Warbling Vireo (150), and Dusky Flycatcher (151). As we got to the far end of the walk, we got to enjoy the zany calls of a Yellow-breasted Chat (152). I was asking Richard about various Douglas County birds as we walked, and Ruffed Grouse came up. "We had one here yesterday when we were scouting," he told me casually.

And then we heard/felt/experienced it. Thump... thump.... thump..thump..thump. thump.thump.thumpthumpthumupthumpthump. (153)

Two-tailed Swallowtail

And here's where I have to go on a little rant about communication. :) Ruffed Grouse hardly has any eBird pins (eBird), it's listed as a code 4 bird in the county (Washington Birder), but Richard told me it's easy enough to find in the right habitat in the county (man on the street). Other birds we discussed during the day were considered rare, but pinned quite a bit on eBird. I hope I can get some of these sorted out! I try to get my information from a few different sources, and work from there.

It is at any rate very possible that there are Ruffed Grouse populations in Douglas County that are getting missed by the folks that use eBird - take note!

Douglas Squirrel in Douglas County. . . imagine that

Dusky Flycatcher?

Here's a fun picture. I believe this was a Dusky, but I can't say for sure. What I can say for sure is that "Dusky Flycatcher in flight" and "Dusky Flycatcher underwing" gave me no images with this kind of view! So I'm just including it for people to chew on, especially if they are savvy with field marks. We heard and viewed several Duskies, but was this one? How could one tell?

Black-headed Grosbeak

Ruud Canyon

We turned things back around after the Ruffed Grouse (this was right where Rock Island Creek crosses Indian Camp Road) and made our way back to Badger Mountain Road. Up the hill a little bit, and then we turned East again down Ruud Canyon Road. 

Hillside above Ruud Canyon Road

Here we got a lot of Ponderosa Pine habitat. New warblers here included MacGillivray's (154), and Townsend's (155). Both ended up being seen-only for me, with the Townsend's songs coming from high in the canopy, and the MacGillivray's popping up long enough for the swift-of-eye, but not for this guy. We also had Wilson's Warblers. These I was actually able to glimpse. Fun to find that there was actually one in this picture:

Where's Waldo? Wilson's Warbler edition. Good luck!

Other new birds here included Chipping Sparrows (156) and a calling Townsend's Solitaire (157). Finches included Red Crossbill, a surprising House Finch, and Cassin's Finches trying to sound like Cassin's Vireos with their call notes. We made a few more stops along the road before descending down onto the plateau.

A Common Blue butterfly, I think. We also saw Orange-tip Butterflies

We hit the native grasslands in hopes of some Grasshopper Sparrows, but came up empty there. Western Meadowlark, Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and Ring-necked Pheasant were all present. 

Redfield Road

Hairy Clematis

How fun to come back to Redfield Road! Back in March, I had a great morning of owling and finching here. Now I was back for spring - snow gone from the ground and flowers in bloom. We walked it up to the overlook above the ski area and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. No new birds along that stretch for the year for me, although we had fun watching a Sharp-shinned Hawk high above the mountain, and listening to cows nearby! Mountain Chickadee, Cassin's Finch, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Chipping Sparrow were the common species here, as well as some passing Pine Siskins.

Some kind of longhorn beetle on Balsamroot

Some kind of... stinkbug? I found nothing that was a good image match - have fun, Bug People!

Waterville and the plateau from Badger Mountain overlook

Temperance

Oh goodness the Waterville STP is a temptation. Its gates are open, but the signs are clear. I don't know things changed here, but it used to be (or used to be thought to be?) open for folks to drive on in and look at the birds. I've had some nice birds there in the past, and had all kinds of imaginings of what birds could have been in there (Blue-winged Teal and American Bittern, based on a report from the exact same day - maybe the sings aren't clear enough?), but I simply scoped from the road and let it go. 

I stopped in Waterville to get out of the sun for a little bit. The Coyote Pass Cafe was open, and had Wifi. An adult beverage sounded nice but they served none there. "But you could grab a little airplane bottle of Vodka from the corner store and sneak it into your drink if you wanted," a person seated in the cafe pointed out - the waitress nodded in agreement. But again, letting this go was an easy enough thing, so I ordered a lemonade and the grilled chicken salad. 

Then the greatest temptation of all presented itself: 

Possibly the best mug in the universe (left)

"How much?" I asked the waitress, pointing at the mug. She smiled and walked it back to the owner, who was busy cooking in the kitchen. I didn't hear the conversation, but could see it taking place, and kind of knew the truth of the first sentence before the waitress spoke it, 

"She says she doesn't really want to part with it... but if you want it for five or ten dollars, that's fine."

And again, just doing without seemed like the right way to go here. I was happy enough just to snap the picture and toss it in here. I was able to pick up a mug, at any rate, for 50-some-odd-cents at the thrift store across the street as I went to grab my laptop. The Douglas County Courthouse - not a bad pickup either.

I came back to cold lemonade and a salad - taking a little time to check email and eBird. I decided my best bet was to hit Moses Coulee and Jameson Lake first, and then to make my way up to some nice shorebird spots on the East side of the plateau. 

Jameson Lake Road

I had two primary targets on the road up to Jameson Lake. The first was found pretty quickly - White-throated Swifts (158) swarming over one of the basalt cliffs. I pulled over at one point near a bit of scrabbly scree, rolled the windows down and took a ten minute nap, waking up to the other: Rock Wren (159). 

I continued up to Jameson Lake, parked at the South end of the lake, and walked it from there. 

Jameson Lake

I got the funniest sounds here at the lake - Redhead ducks were meowing, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds (everywhere) were chainsawing away. Cormorants were on the lake in good numbers, and I also found one Caspian Tern (160) patrolling back and forth over the lake. 

Yellow-headed Blackbird

I was happy to find that Jak's Resort, which had burned down in the Labor Day fires, is working to come back. The building, of course, is gone, but the owner picked up a grant and is trying to get things back to the way they were. You can still pick up food and beverages there, as well as rent boats and campsites. All very good news, and I hope some of you make the trip out!

Returning to my car from the Snack Shack, I found another new bird for the year, and Eastern Kingbird (161). This one got flagged by eBird, so was likely on the early end of arrivals. 

Caspian Tern

Eastern Kingbird

Eastward!

I had never taken the Jameson Lake East Access Road, so it was an easy choice. No regrets at all, as it took me immediately to some Lark Sparrows (162). From there, I was hoping to find a Loggerhead Shrike as I passed through some sage? Maybe a Blue-winged Teal at some of the ponds in Eastern Douglas? Shorebirds? But none of the above came to pass. 

Lark Sparrow

I briefly considered driving up to the Northeast corner, as I had originally intended, but the lack of anything at Atkins Lake, Heritage Road, and various other ponds in the area helped me decide that I was done for the day. I was getting a little weary, and decided to make my way towards the motel in Wilbur where I'd made a reservation. A little outside of Douglas (30 miles or so), but not too too far, and it was a decent rate. 

I again drifted off to sleep early, after taking time to enter observations and plot and plan for the next day in Douglas.