July 26th - Sunshine and Smoke

Context is everything, isn't it? A couple days before this trip, I was enjoying sunshine and smoke as my brother worked the barbecue after a long day of painting our parent's home in Yakima. For this particular birding trip to Douglas County, sunshine and smoke were not so pleasant. 

Sunshine is great. It melted the snow. It helped all of these plants grow that fed the birds that I've seen this year (directly, or indirectly!). But during the hot days of July and August, the birds really quiet down. As I type this, I'm reaching for some reason to blame it on the sun... but I suppose I could blame it on the kids. All of these birds have newborns to care for, and probably aren't sleeping much. They just don't have the energy to be singing like they were in months past! But as birders, we associate these sunny days with subdued birds, so I'll do it for the culture.

Smoke is great! Even a little forest fire here and there is great for an ecosystem. I've been amazed to hear about all of the benefits of fire. It provides the heat needed for some seeds to germinate. It clears out space around trees, letting smaller birds like grouse move more freely. Clearing out that space also helps ensure that larger more destructive fires aren't happening all that frequently. 

Fires were roaring just outside of Douglas in late July

Unfortunately, we've gotten a lot of that in recent years. Poorly managed forests have led to larger, more frequent fires. Add a little climate change to that, and it's not surprising that fire and smoke put the kibosh on some of my hiking and backpacking plans for this trip. 

Add a dry spring to this, which has slowly subtracted from the pond/lake/flooded-field/puddle count in the county, and it would seem like July was not set up to be a productive visit. 

But what does "not productive" mean? Here's some of my past "big years" for perspective:

• Chelan: 175 species by the end of June. July: + 5
• King: 164 species. July: + 9
• Mason 163 + 3
• Lewis 152 +3

Every one of these counties also gave me some pretty amazing hiking opportunities! But Douglas was simply a different beast. There's no great heights to reach by foot! Add to all of this, that my total for Douglas at the end of June was 186 - higher than I've had in any county by the end of June - expectations should have been pretty low!

5.

I came away with 5 new species somehow! 

At the end of the trip, I was initially disappointed, and wondering if I should have spent another day out there, but in the end. . . 191 is a higher total than I've had at the end of any July. (Correction: in 2020, I got to 198 by the end of June in King, but ran into car trouble, and put an end to King aspirations, shifting my attention to Pierce County).

Apologies, of course, to those of you who don't want to know the ending before reading the book. I'll try to make it a good book this time around. As described, it'll be full of sunshine and smoke. 

Waking up in East Wenatchee

Sunday afternoon into the evening had really not included any birding. My brothers and I had spent a few days painting our parents' house in Yakima, and I was pretty exhausted. On the way through Wenatchee, I stopped to do a podcast interview with Scott Cowan from the Explore Washington State Podcast. We had crossed paths at Union Hill Cider outside of East Wenatchee in June, and he had taken an interest in the big year. It was not the first time he's interviewed a birder for the podcast! Make sure to take a look if you love exploring the state.

So I stumbled into the Cedars Inn once more, and had let myself sleep in a little. The breakfast buffet had been closed for all of my previous visits, but it was open this time around. I was certainly eyeing every serving utensil with suspicion. . . do you remember when we just used a spoon that someone else had touched? In the beforetimes?

Rufous Hummingbird sightings in eBird

Hummingbirds were the first order of business. I was only missing Rufous Hummingbird, and there was a neighborhood with a sighting on eBird. I parked and walked the area with no luck. American Crows, American Goldfinches, Northern Flickers, and plenty of House Sparrows and House Finches, but no sign of a single hummingbird at a plant or feeder. 

I doubled down on this search, and went to Rock Island, as I knew some streets seemed to have a lot of feeders. Nothing. Next on the list is some research into the best times of day to find hummingbirds! These little guys will be gone after not too long. 

I did my usual run through the neighborhood where I've been looking for a California Scrub-Jay, and also came up empty. (See my running tally and needs list page for details on a Bushtit sighting from this neighborhood that I've taken off of the list).

Waterville STP

This picture says a lot. Grain harvest is underway, and the smoke from Nespelem was clouding the air.

I pulled over numerous times in the East Wenatchee area to scan quickly for American White Pelicans, and had my eyes on the Columbia as I headed for Highway 2 to take me up to the plateau. Noon had come around by the time I was pointing my binoculars at the shores of the Waterville Sewage Treatment Plant. 

This has been as good a place as any for shorebirds in the county over the years. It's certainly more reliable than some of the ephemeral lakes dotted around the plateau. Early in my drive as I circled the ponds, I found a couple of Spotted Sandpipers, then settled in as the East pond had quite a few peeps. Killdeer were plentiful and vocal. For little birds, I added three to the year list: Least Sandpiper (187), Western Sandpiper (188), and Solitary Sandpiper (189). 

Least Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

I'll admit - shorebirds stress me out. They're a little variable, and some of the field marks can be tough to see at times. Take the leg color. For the birds above the Least has yellow legs, and the Western has black. But that least is up to its hips in the water, and the Western is backlit! Get the legs a little muddy, and the identifications can get muddied, for sure. The bills helped a lot here, with the Least having a shorter bill, and the Western having a longer, droopier bill. The Western is also showing a greyer back with a V of rufous (it's... what birders call orange... and red... I apologize for us) feathers on the back. The Least is a warmer mix of brown and rufous.

Solitary Sandpiper

This one was not any less stressful, as Spotted Sandpipers have... yellow legs, a plain brown back, a long bill, spots underneath... I know, it sounds like I'm describing the bird I've got here! But the Spotted Sandpiper's spots are generally up on the chest, the bill is usually a brighter yellow, and you get more of an eyebrow than an eye ring as you see with Solitary (and you don't see much of either here!). Spotted Sandpipers also do an awful lot of bobbing, and this one did not. 

Douglas Creek

Lorquin's Admiral

I was thinking of Red-naped Sapsuckers here, maybe a Rufous Hummingbird as a longshot. It was pretty quiet! A few Gray Catbirds and Yellow-breasted Chats made some noise, and I heard a single Canyon Wren, but not much else. I walked from my favorite campsite - the one right at the first flooded part of the road, with the apple trees? you'll see it - down the road until I hit the more fully flooded part. 

It was nice to sit and enjoy the sounds of the creek, and I was even treated to a nice "thump" of an apple falling from one of the trees at that campsite. It was pretty small and green, but it'll be great once those apples start to ripen. 

Apples at Douglas Creek

I hung it up for the day at Douglas once I got back to my car. Looking back, I have seen Red-naped Sapsucker, right here at Douglas Creek, in mid-to-late September on another trip. Hopefully I will find one before then this year!

More Shorebirding

Nothing to see here! Highway 17 pond between 5 and 6 Rd

On a previous trip, I'd seen that some of the shorebird spots in the SE corner of the county were dried up, unproductive, or inaccessible. A visual may help here, as some of the names I've got for ponds might not be widely used. I'm sure at least that "Atkins Junior" is completely fabricated, but the maps should clarify everything.

First the map map:

This just shows where the three maps above are relative to each other, to Highway 2, and Banks Lake

Map 1: Atkins Lake, and Atkins Junior:

Map 2: 6 x N pond

Bummer... I had Black-necked Stilts and Greater Yellowlegs here in the spring

Map 3: All of those other ponds and lakes

So there have been better years to look for shorebirds in Douglas! That said, it's not a complete bust, and hopefully the map will help people in future years when some of these spots have some water.

Refueling in Mansfield

I skipped over to Mansfield, perhaps for four reasons: 

1. I wanted to follow up on recent sightings of Greater Sage-Grouse in the area.
2. I wanted to at least stare at the road leading to the Mansfield Retention Ponds to confirm the road existed, and that signs would discourage me from going there. (yes and yes).
3. I wanted to sit down and eat at the Golden Grain Café.
4. I wanted to fill up, as I was at a quarter tank.

No luck on the highway on the way in for Sage Grouse, and I at least know where the turn-off is for the Ponds. I got to town, drove around, and saw no gas station. I pulled in front of the café, only to find it is temporarily closed in the wake of a fire. I thought it was going to be a bust. 

I visited the Mansfield Family Market, and actually got everything I needed. I asked the gal at the counter if there was a place I could sit down and grab a bite, and she offered cold case sandwiches, a Squirt, and the bench out front. I asked about gas, and she came out front with me (along with another local who wanted to help), to point out the gas pumps just down the road near the airport. 

I guess I should have kept asking for help - she may have given me a Sage Grouse? :)

"Coleman Oil" on your maps

I enjoyed my sandwich and soda as I fueled up and tried to plan out my drive from Mansfield. All of these roads... 1-50 or whatever, and A-Z. It gets so easy to have them blur! But I decided I would head south from the highway on I road, head East on 11 Road, and then North again on K road. There was plenty of sage habitat out there, so I thought I'd at least give it a shot.

Bird-wise, it was nice to see a Lark Sparrow early on I, but there wasn't much else to see. A few Mourning Doves flushed from the road side, and even the meadowlarks seemed to have quieted down.

Highway 174

Highway 174 heads East for many miles towards Grand Coulee Dam. It's amazing how many little ponds there are along the way here! One of these near McCabe Road (there are a few nice ponds right in there), gave me one more shorebird for the year: Long-billed Dowitcher (190 for the year!).

Red-tailed Hawk

These suckers were way out there, and thankfully called, or I would have been stuck with "Dowitcher sp?". Even as distant as they were, it was fun to watch them poke into the mud with a sewing machine-like motion. There were a handful of Least Sandpipers and Killdeer on these ponds as well, but nothing else of note, really.

Big Bend Wildlife Area

You would think, as it became 5...6 PM... that I would have known exactly what the plan was as I drove towards the most distant corner of the county from home. My original plan had been to hike in and backpack. Although no signs told me I couldn't, all I had read was telling me it was not an option. Hotel? Many rooms were pushing 125 to 150 dollars a night, so no thanks. Sleeping in my car? I've done it this year, but where? And what did I hope to find in the morning? 

But I kept pushing along 174, and then up to Big Bend, arriving some time around 7. The Mariner game had just started on the radio, as I drove out of reception and it reduced to static. 

There had been sightings of Sharp-tailed Grouse right at the China Creek entrance. Twice in the last month! My excitement here would be for a new state bird for me. I am nearly positive that I have stated that I have never seen these birds somewhere in this blog. That's not quite true. I did see some from a trail in South Dakota many years ago. My birding is just so focused on our marvelous state, that it hardly registers! 

As luck would have it, I was about twenty yards down the trail when six grouse flushed! Dusky Grouse. They had nice rounded tails with a thick dark band at the end. 

Just like Douglas Creek, it was pretty quiet here. It was actually just perfect. The sun was ducking behind the hills, and the air was filling up with dragonflies, of all things! Dozens and dozens of them were in the air above me, zipping around silently. Chukars and Flickers were nearly the only ruckus during the evening. At one point a Common Raven zipped overhead, wings tucked back in a dive bomb of some sort. It opened up its wings just before disappearing over a ridge. I can only guess what it was up to, but I'll trust it was something clever. Smart birds. 

When I started to hear Common Nighthawks going "peent", I figured it was time to head back to the car. The sunset was turning out to be a nice one, and the only signs of smoky air were now visible far off to the West. 

Heading home

190 was a pretty good tally, and I wasn't really expecting much as we started to dip into civil twilight as I drove down D road towards 174. I got two surprises along the way, however. The first was a tree full of turkeys!

Fun. I've had heard-only turkeys in this area, which seems to have some pretty regular sightings from the few folks who come out here. They made the "Weet Woot" calls that I've been hearing as they sat up in the trees. I've been a little surprised to see them flagged in eBird, and the reviewer for the county has been radio silent this year. I guess any time a heard-only bird is flagged, one hopes to hear about confusion species - what else could it have been? They're good conversations, and help people to understand why a species is not expected in a given area. Fingers crossed that I get pestered eventually!

I kept heading down the road and got my next surprise - a Short-eared Owl! (191) My camera really pooped out at this point in the dark, but I got to enjoy a view of the bird swooping up onto a post. This wasn't one that had been on my radar, but it totally made sense for the time of day and habitat. 

5! This was not a bad number of birds to pull out of the doldrums of July. The owl actually got me to 200 for my life list as well, which was a fun bonus.