June 6th - Big Bend Wildlife Area

Civil Twilight

I had gone to sleep on top of my sleeping bag... then just draped it over myself... but by morning, I was deeply tucked into it, a little surprised at how much heat had left the air during a clear June night. The previous evening had been a little windy, tossing the sides of the tent inward and outward at odd intervals, but it was generally calm and comfy inside. 

I'd walked this trail from China Creek Road, getting most of the way towards Black Lake

I had backpacked about a mile or so into the Big Bend Wildlife Area, nabbing a flat enough grassy spot along the trail to set up my tent. I had also gone to bed pretty darn early after a very long day that had started at 4 AM. 

This made it a little easier to stomach the morning chorus. at 3:30. 

First of all, understand that the night had been generally silent... except for one insomnia-ridden Yellow-breasted Chat, intent on pulling an all-nighter. A Great Horned Owl pair sang for a short bit, rousing me from sleep briefly. Once the chorus got going, however, it got very busy. 

Campground backdrop

Common Nighthawk (182 for the year) was one of the first birds of interest, surprisingly, I also got Red Crossbills passing in a flock some time around 4. I knew I was in for a lot of birds, but maybe not quite so early! The spot itself was situated in a creek valley with talus on one side, and basalt cliffs on the other. The creek was lined with thick deciduous trees and shrubs, and backed by conifers. I don't often just focus on rattling through bird after bird, but this spot warranted it. 

Chukars and Rock Wrens both called from the talus north of my campsite, and Prairie Falcons called from above the valley, likely nesting in the cliffs. The trees and shrubs near the site had American Robin, House Wren, Warbling Vireo, Western Wood-Pewee, Cedar Waxwing, Bullock's Oriole, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, American Goldfinch, Lazuli Bunting, Black-headed Grosbeak, Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, and Mourning Dove. The conifers deeper back had Black-capped Chickadee, Dark-eyed Junco, Western Tanager, Downy Woodpecker, and Northern Flicker. 

As it became light, I was able to add some swallows (Violet-green, and Cliff), Common Raven, California Quail, and Say's Phoebe. Finally I started following tapping noises, and kept trying in vain to locate woodpeckers. I tried heading up the hill to the North, and came across Wax Currants, and plenty of flowers - all good food for grouse. But what kind?

Here's where I have to fill you in a little more on the planning for this trip. 

All of these other species and possibilities were the big draw for me, but once I found the name of this place - Big Bend Wildlife Area - I poked around a little more. Little did I know that it was largely set up as a refuge for Sharp-tailed Grouse! Sharp-tailed Grouse are a species that numbers in the hundreds in the state. The fires back on Labor Day in 2020 took out the most reliable habitat they had, I believe in the state. These ran up from Bridgeport towards West Foster Creek, which has been a wintering spot for the Dyer Hill population of birds. 

Range map from www.birdweb.org, showing the Douglas County populations

I had kind of given up on seeing any of these birds for the year - a shame as it would have been a new bird for me in the state. But then I found out about this population! So I wanted to figure out how to find STGR (if I may abbreviate Sharp-tailed Grouse). 

So I did some research, and by the end of it can say that I feel like I know more about how to look for STGR than nearly any bird I know. Where did I go for this information?? Hunting videos on YouTube! It really had not sunk in that hunters might know a bazillion times more about finding birds than many of us birders, but it does make some sense! I watched a whole video on where to find them - here's what I learned: 

1. Not exactly flat landscapes. If you are walking through a field, and don't feel particularly winded from the ups and downs, it might not be an interesting place for a STGR.
2. Water nearby. This is almost all birds, right?
3. Early season - flowers and berries; Late season - grasshoppers. 
4. Tall groundcover, but not TALL groundcover. If it is so short that you don't even have to think about where you're walking, it's not great. If it's so tall that you'd expect a pheasant to flush out of it, it's also not great. 
5. Cover - trees, tall shrubs
6. Diversity - If you can see from a distance that it's a patchwork of colors, you might be on to something

I. Loved. This. In the video, they really got into the life history of Sharp-tailed Grouse, and I felt like I was armed with the information I needed. I was now a habitat connoisseur as I walked the area around my campsite. They had also talked about Dusky Grouse, and I honestly expected to find them as I went up the hill a little ways. There were some steeper slopes, and lots of berries to eat. But that wasn't the grouse I had either! 

Campsite from above, facing South

Ruffed Grouse - a code 4 bird that I'd had earlier in the year. This one is actually pretty interesting, because as a code 4, it means that it's not reported annually, but I'm getting the sense that they are just plain old present in the county, but too skulky to be seen every year. I tried to figure out where the drumming was coming from, but to no avail. 

Woodpecker snag

Behind me, another nice surprise popped up - a Lewis's Woodpecker! I thought this might have been the unfamiliar drumming sound I'd heard earlier, so I gave up on my woodpecker hunt and decided to take care of breakfast and breaking camp. 

Ruffed Grouse - second location

Coffee, oatmeal, and then packing it up. As I rolled up the rainfly for the tent, I was surprised to find my fingers getting pretty chilled. I looked carefully... frost! Not what I'd expected in June in the Columbia Basin, but there ya go. I was not completely surprised to find that I was able to pack things more compactly on my way out. I don't know that this is going to lead me down the path of ultra-lightweight backpacking! But it did pique my curiosity.

On the way back, the most interesting bird that I came across was *another* Ruffed Grouse, drumming from the creekside growth. I'm telling you... there may actually be a few of these birds out there.

I have to say, there was some simple relief in seeing my car still intact. I'd had a break-in recently and lost a window, so any time I come back to my car now, I'm a little more thankful. 

Sunlight reflecting off of Rock Lake

My original intent had been to hike further into the wildlife area from my campsite, but the gating had deterred me, so I decided to drive up from the China Creek entrance to the Rock Lake entrance. I had been here back in May, and had just walked up to the lake itself and birded from there. This time I wanted to get in as far as I could. I knew the original goal of hiking it to the Columbia might not work, but this area had to be explored. 

Oh my. I found this whole landscape to be stunning. Different stretches definitely had a different feel. Early on, it's open to grazing, but I did happen across a gate that was more clearly openable. From here, I just walked and enjoyed. I decided not to really stop too long anywhere to check out habitat - wanting to cover as much distance as I could. 

Landscapes - Big Bend Wildlife Area

Prairie Falcon vs. Red-tailed Hawk

Wildflowers were dotted around, and the contour of the landscape was about what I had expected to be good for Sharp-tailed Grouse. It was just so much of it! I kept walking and gradually got closer to School Creek, which runs from this area down to the Columbia. I finally got to an area that had some Wax Currants, and thought it might be improving for grouse, when I heard one. Dusky Grouse! (183) It boomed slowly from cover, and... based on what I'd watched... it seemed like a good place for them to be - plenty of cover, starting to get into some steeper slopes, and lots of food.

The next new bird of the year came as I more properly got into the descent, and the thicker vegetation along the creek. An Orange-crowned Warbler (184) sang for me. This was one of the birds that I thought would be gone from Douglas after migration finished. That said, the breeding habitat comes from the Okanogan right up to the border with Douglas, so I thought there might be a chance to find these little dudes. 

Then things became coniferous for a little stretch, and the birds shifted too - singing Hermit Thrush was the most exciting for me. Took me a second to figure out why the Swainson's Thrush was singing so strangely! Hammond's Flycatcher (185) was another new bird for the year as well - one that I figured, like Orange-crowned Warbler, that I had missed for the year.

Rock Wren

To the left as I continued down the slope there was a rocky outcrop with a Rock Wren singing in plain view. This one had only been heard previously in the year, so this was a treat. I thought I was gated out again, so I figured I may as well take it to the end of the line - this got me a Black-chinned Hummingbird (186), which came in for a drink out of a thistle, and also got me a closer look at the gate, which I was again able to open!

Lower Stretch of the trail - good grouse habitat

Large unidentified Beetle

It would appear that the gates here are just intended to be as cattle-proof as possible to protect the habitat, but it was just exciting to get out of the trees and into the next batch of hilly grassland habitat. From here, the habitat looked, to me, perfect for Sharp-tailed. I walked off-trail a little bit, getting closer looks at flowers and berries. Grasshopper Sparrows were plentiful in this little area. I did have some birds flush, but the orange, rounded tails quickly told me that they were Gray Partridge, rather than any kind of grouse. 

A lake down at the bottom of the hill had a few ducks in it, the most surprising being an American Wigeon. I didn't realize that any stayed around for breeding, but it would seem from some research that they do use the Okanogan in summer months. 

I was, at this point, a mile and a half to two miles from my car, and there were clouds in the sky. It had been a perfectly comfortable walk, but I wasn't 100 percent sure that would continue. I looked down the trail at the gap where it would descend down to the Columbia. Not this time. I also knew that the trail looped around to Black Lake - my original backpacking destination, and an area where I suspected there might be some great Sharp-tailed habitat. But caution seemed like the best plan at this point, so I turned back and tromped up the trail to my car. 

I've got to head back. Given the cool birds that showed up here, and how much of the area was left unexplored, I absolutely need to go back. This was undoubtedly the most unexpected and amazing area that I have visited during the year. 

You may need to go there too! Do you have thoughts of seeing Sharp-tailed Grouse in Washington? Get out there now, and look for flowers. Get out there in a couple months and look for grasshoppers. Now, it's not going to be Tour Bus Grouse, perhaps. It may even be that you don't end up seeing them - I didn't. But for me, the idea of seeing them out in *habitat* rather than just stuck in a survivable spot in a tree for the winter actually adds to the interest. 

I also think that some other birds are going to pop up in this area, perhaps regularly, once people start exploring here. 

Wrapping it up

Once I was back at my car, I just got it in my head that going to enough little puddles in the Northern part of the county would eventually give me an American Avocet, a Sora, a Black-crowned Night-Heron, a Black Tern, or far more likely: all of the above. I had mostly expected birds, however, with the possible exception of a Common Yellowthroat at Hayes Road Pond off of Highway 17.

Northern Harrier

One little side trip did prove to be productive, although it had nothing to do with any of those birds listed. At some point I had looked at the roads North of 17 and 174. There's a similarly unexplored area there, and I was running off to look at a couple more ponds, when I found some birds I'd missed all year: Loggerhead Shrike (187). 

I swear I've been in Douglas County, and even been in and around a little sagebrush - really! But somehow I've missed this bird at every turn. The two I found weren't particularly shy - perching up on wires and posts and sagebrush. 

July

It's at least interesting to look ahead to July and see... what birds are on the horizon? Which ones may slip away? Using eBird, you can actually choose a location (Douglas), a list (year list), and a time period (July), and it will tell you what birds have been sighted more frequently during the time  - ones that you do not presently have on your list of interest. So here's my July, the top 20 at least:

Wow... 12 of these are shorebirds. Rufous Hummingbird I can wrap my brain around - that should be a feeder bird somewhere? Red-naped Sapsucker was on my radar, although that is pretty far down the list! Some of the other water birds (Sora, Black-crowned Night Heron) also seem to show up at places that are good for shorebirds, but those places were pretty dry in June! That leaves some Columbia birds (Bonaparte's Gull and American White Pelican), and perhaps some sage birds (Sage-Grouse and Short-eared Owl). 

I honestly still would have Sharp-tailed Grouse on my list. It's not even on this list, which goes down 11 more entries, and includes 4 more shorebirds, and a couple flycatchers. Barn Owl too... there are Barn Owls in the county. I really believe this. We shall see! 

Rare Selfie

June 5th - Badger for Breakfast, and Big Bend Backpacking

 A whole lot of planning and thought led to the realization that the two most productive spots for me were on fairly opposite ends of Douglas County:

I still think the county looks like a cowboy on a bronco...

Waning crescent moon

With this in mind, I started my morning on Melvin Road up on Badger Mountain. Although I had come here in hopes of Barred Owl, I had found at least two Long-eared Owls, as well as a mystery owl flying across the dusty back road in front of me. I woke up to owls as well - a pair of Great Horned Owls calling at almost 4 A.M.. I had actually not slept all that poorly in the car, so after a little more napping, I got out and listened to the morning chorus. 

Common Poorwill, Western Tanager, Western Wood Pewee, Robins and Towhees were pretty constant. I did add a handful of birds to the year list as well, including Cassin's Vireo (173), Nashville Warbler (174), and one of the birds I had really hoped to find in this area, Swainson's Thrush (175)! Listen in on the Nashville Warbler bit, and you can hear Common Poorwills calling as well. It was a fun fun morning chorus, and left me kind of glad that crazy hotel rates had pushed me up here for the morning!

Ruud Canyon

Some species of Paintbrush? unsure!

Ruud Canyon meanders from near the summit of Badger down to the Waterville Plateau, and includes some nice coniferous, deciduous, and even a little bit of sage habitat. I had been here in May on a field trip, and had many of the same birds in the area as I had on my last visit. This time around was a little more focused, and quite early on, I got one of my hoped-for code 3 birds, an Olive-sided Flycatcher (176). I was a little surprised that the West side of Badger would not have these as well, perhaps at the ski area, but birds know what they like!

Cassin's Finches, Western Tanager, Western Wood-Pewees, and Spotted Towhees made most of the noise for the morning. I had Mountain Chickadees, as well, but surprisingly (to me) not much in the way of nuthatches. Other birds that I found back in March (Brown Creeper, Pine Grosbeak, Clark's Nutcracker) had also not been seen since. I've been pretty lucky with my timing!

I wasn't the only one up at this hour

Further down the hill, I actually got my final thrush for the year! (I mean... unless something completely wacky comes through. I'll make a note here later about how I was wrong if a Wood Thrush or Redwing shows up.) Veeries (177) sang from the riparian stretches farther down the canyon. This is my favorite family of birds for sure, so it was awesome to get all of them checked off: 

Western Bluebird: Code 3, April 11th

Mountain Bluebird: Code 2, March 14th

Townsend's Solitaire: Code 3, May 14th

Varied Thrush: Code 2, January 2nd 

Veery: Code 3, June 5th

Swainson's Thrush: Code 3, June 5th

Hermit Thrush: Code 3, February 12th

American Robin: Code 1, January 1st

Yellow-breasted Chat - Ruud Canyon

I had kinda penciled in that I would find one species each month. I have no idea where the actual logic was behind that, but it wasn't so far from off! Just a little ahead of schedule. Why are they my favorite family? The songs. Thrushes have an extra set of vocal chords, so they can do some crazy things. I once had Veery and Swainson's Thrush both singing outside of my tent, and the two of them side by side made for an amazing chorus!

As I broke out onto Baseline Road, I added one more species, Willow Flycatcher (178), which like many of the other adds of the day is just kind of a late-arriver.

Hillsides: sage-steppe? sage-scrub? scrub-steppe?
I'm reliving the time my kids tried to explain what dub-step was.

Waterville STP

Okay, this place is not closed to the public! Signs will deter you, but these are not signs placed by anyone associated with the Sewer Treatment Plant. Why are they there...?

Buffalo!

There's someone who wants to be extra clear that these buffalo are to be left alone, and because they are grazing so close to the STP, this is a reasonable concern. If it deters some ne'er-do-wells from hopping in and buffalo hunting, these are good signs. Birdwatchers, according to the folks who run the STP, are welcome. This was great news, as this is a pretty productive spot, especially for shorebirds!

The coolest thing I got to see here was actually a mating display from the male Ruddy Ducks: 

Male Ruddy Duck

They kick their tail straight up in the air, and... like... bob their head and tail up and down making this cooky sound as they do. Lots of fun. Hope it works. Can't have too many Ruddy Ducks.

I also got a chance to finally pick up some Blue-winged Teals for the year (179).

Male Blue-winged Teal - Waterville STP

As well as a few other birds I had seen previously - just had a chance to get some better pictures of them than back in May: 

Eastern Kingbird

Wilson's Phalarope

Cinnamon Teal, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Savannah Sparrows were among the other birds present. Nice birdy stop before I headed back up the hill!  I actually took Titchenal Canyon Road up to Indian Camp Road and back down Badger Mountain. The one new bird for the year from that loop was a Red-eyed Vireo (180!). Not a completely unexpected find, but any time a code 4 bird comes along, it's a happy thing. It was singing its clear sweet 3 note runs from a riparian stretch in Titchenal Canyon before flying over the hills, giving me a look at the eye stripe, long body and bill, and bright olive coloring to help ensure it wasn't a Cassin's Vireo.

Willow Flycatcher

Douglas Creek

I zipped down to Douglas Creek, following a tip from Joe, the Douglas County compiler, that he'd had Red-naped Sapsucker and Gray Catbird there earlier in the morning. These were both two not-uncommon birds at code 2, but both had been missed as I criss-crossed Badger Mountain. Walking the nature path along the creek, I picked up one (Gray Catbird, 181), but not the other. To be completely honest though - the birds had my attention... nearly not at all. 

Dragonflies (like butterflies, mushrooms, berries..) could easily have been the big distraction in my life instead of birds. The four pictures here do not fully represent the experience that morning. Dragonflies were everywhere. Hundreds would be an easy call on the number. (Post-publishing edit! I was able to check with Dennis Paulson, the state (national? I'm not versed on these things, but it's possible) expert on dragonflies and damselflies. These are damselflies, and all the same species! Vivid Dancers - Argia vivida)

It's been fun to pick up on other parts of the ecosystems during times when the birds are light, or not attention-grabbingly uncommon. It was fun to try to even figure out why they clumped in different places... although I came up with nothing.

The picture I *didn't* get of this Yellow-bellied Marmot was of it gripping the top of the 
post in the picture. That's where it was perched when I first saw it!

Jameson Lake

White-throated Swifts, Rock Wrens, Ruddy Ducks, Coots, all the swallows you could want (you can't want Purple Martin though), a hot dog, a cold beer, and descriptions of what happened on Labor Day - that's what I got here. 

The Labor Day fires wiped out Jack's Resort here. The owners described how all of this happened, including the response from the Waterville volunteer fire department. . . including. . . helicopters coming to the lake and grabbing water to drop on other locations while the resort got no help. They fought it while they could at the resort, and got folks cleared away to safety, but when the wind turns in a wildfire, it moves fast. 

Have I seen effect of the fire in terms of the birds I've seen this year? Certainly. There are places where I likely would have been able to see Greater Sage Grouse, or Sharp-tailed Grouse that are going to need years to recover. Other birds (like the Sage Sparrow I saw on the East access Road as I left) may not be whittled down to 100s in the state, but certainly become harder to find when they lose that much habitat. 

Nothing to see here... please move along... nothing to see here folks

It has been one of the driest springs on record in this area. Combine that with the fires the previous year, and then combine that with some wind. I drove to all of the spots one might go to look for an American Avocet, and got nothing.

6th and N ponds 

Okay, I'm typing this a half-minute after learning about it, and this from a 3 minute skim. That's baking soda. Well... don't quote me on that and use it for soda bread, but if I read this right, this is an alkaline lake. Alkaline lakes have really high pH (low acidity, so they are basic... not in the pumpkin spice latte way), because of dissolved salts like the sodium bicarbonate that I will suspect we're seeing here. There's lots of invertebrates that really like these lakes, and there's lots of birds that like those invertebrates. 

But ya need water.

Some of these lakes are ephemeral - just here if there's enough rain and not too much evaporation. So the pond here that surprised me with Black-necked Stilt and Greater Yellowlegs in April, is no longer able to produce surprises until it gets a good rain. Fingers crossed. 

"Atkins Junior"

Atkins Lake is one of the best places in the state to photograph American Avocets in the breeding season. If it is there. It is not. It has been planted this year, and not with crops of invertebrates, apparently. So there's this little lake off to the side. I'm thinking people will be giving eBird reports from "Atkins Lake" when they really mean this one. I've been calling it "Atkins Junior" and I hope it sticks, if only for clarity. 

Do you see what this has? Water. Do you see what else? Mud. But what is it missing? Apparently invertebrates? Why? 

Baking soda.

It would be so tempting to just carry all that stuff from the previous pond, dump it in here, and wait for the crop of invertebrates to grow, followed by the succession crop of Avocets. It would be except science. I saw no bird in this water or on this mud. Why? Because birds don't eat water and mud.

So much dust...

Big Bend Wildlife Area

Just for fun, do a search on Google Maps for "Big Bend Wildlife Area Douglas County". Fun fact - it doesn't even show up. Awfully odd of me to have this I-can't-even-tell-you level of excitement about this place. How'd that happen? The interest here has been unfolding like an onion.

Goodness, I hardly know how to start here. Turkeys? I think I wanted to come up here because of turkeys. And I've had turkeys in this corner of the county. In fact just back in May! I came up to Turkey Corner (the only meaningful name I had for it) I drove. past. signs. that told me this was a wildlife area. I just thought... hm. Interesting. Even then, I'd never heard of this place by name. 

But I finished up with May and started to look into any birds I might be able to hunt down in June. Of course you've seen a lot of the ones I'd hoped to find. Red-eyed Vireo, however... I might be able to blame Red-eyed Vireo or Least Flycatcher. 

BirdWeb is a site that is run by the Seattle Audubon Society. They've got a lot of great information in there, including species accounts for birds that are found in the state. So Red-eyed Vireo, for example, has a species account, including a range map: 

Least Flycatcher has a similar breeding distribution, and Nashville Warbler may have been pretty similar. Other birds like American Redstart, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush come fairly close to the Douglas border, but not into it. But all of these spots are pretty close to the Columbia! I couldn't quite picture how I was going to be able to access those areas, based on a look at road maps.

Well, what about trail maps...?

I'd started poking around for hikes in the area, and ended up at www.alltrails.com. They have... all the trails. Like that trail from that weedy lot at the end of the cul de sac that actually takes you to the back side of the lake? You thought that only you knew about that trail?? Ha! It's on this site. So I popped in and found this: 

patched together using www.alltrails.com - it's not lined up perfectly... don't use this map

There's two thing that came from this: 1) There's a place called Big Bend Wildlife Area 2) There are trails going down to the Columbia.

!

From here I started looking into more species - owls! I had reasons to think that Barn, Short-eared, and maybe even Burrowing might have reasons to hang around here. So I started looking at camping options, which took me to dispersed camping which took me to the Bureau of Land Management, and an email, and finally a woman who informed me "dispersed camping is allowed here".

!!

I will stop here for now, as far as my research goes. IT WENT DEEPER, but some of that will be better to tackle in the next post. For now, it's all you need to know about why I decided to try to pull off my first successful backpacking in 30 years.

My first successful backpacking in 30 years

I had looked through the garage, and did a quick inventory of the things I needed in order to make it to a campsite, to camp and eat, to day hike, and come back alive. In the end, I was only three items short: 

1. a more compact sleeping bag
2. water purification tablets
3. bear spray

I know! The bear spray surprised me too. But I've come across a cougar once while birding, and that's plenty of times to do that without bear spray. Beyond this, you do not get to know how I packed. What clothes? What food? Nope. You've seen enough in this blog to know that this was not an REI approved product list. 

That said, in the end, I had what I needed, and was able to get it onto a ... 40? 50?? year old external frame backpack, and slung it on my back to head off for my campsite.

The trailhead

I had chosen the Northern access point from China Creek Road, and figured I would camp just short of Black Lake on the North side of the WLA. I passed some cows on the way - they are allowed to graze in selected areas. Much of the surrounding land is pasture land. Because this hike followed a stream path, there were plenty of Yellow-breasted Chats, Yellow Warblers, Bullock's Orioles, Western Wood Pewees, and Lazuli Buntings as well. 

I kept my ears open for any odd sounding warblers, and also for Common Nighthawk, which I did not yet have for the year. I have to say that the fact that I had looked into this so deeply paid off with a good sense of direction as I walked. Okay, sure, it was a straight shot between these hills and those cliffs, but there was still some comfort that came from the familiarity.

I got over a mile in, when I came across a little trouble.

Even now, I look at this gate, and think maybe there was a way to open it... but at the time, this became the end of my road. I'd still gotten into some of the habitat where I had wanted to sleep, so I walked it back a quarter mile to a good spot, and set up my tent. 

Just about the time I got set up, something large and black came lumbering down the path, and I was glad I had brought my bear spray. 

Now before I start getting ridiculed, in my defense, this... bull? (I think the definition here comes down to the presence or absence of horns (no) and genitalia (didn't look closely...)) was looking pretty disoriented, large, and was walking towards me. This was enough to get me armed and ready. As ridiculous as it seemed, it would have to be less ridiculous than the potential story: 

Man in critical condition following cattle attack.

It moved along, and I suddenly realized what a long day it had been. I slipped into my tent, closed my eyes, and got some amazing sleep.