Douglas County Birding: November 29th: No Bird November?

Thanksgiving survivors!

Too many birds

I've birded with a few people over the years. When I was first getting started with birding, I picked up the county birding bug, and loved ticking off new birds on my paper copies of county checklists. I found a friend who was just getting started as well, and we made a few trips together, zipped texts back and forth when there was a chase to be made, etc. etc.

Over time, things changed, and the excitement of it seemed to disappear for him. A search for Snowy Owls with him came up empty, and he was quiet on the long drive home. A few years later, I crossed paths with him on the coast.

I mentioned to him that I'd picked up a few new county birds on the drive out to this rocky shoreline, likely mumbling something about how my Grays Harbor list was a little light. "I've seen too many birds here." He told me cryptically. No further explanation.

We chatted a little about the birds around us, and eventually parted ways. I have seen little of him since.

203

I think this trip helped me understand where my friend was. I'm not in the same spot, but I somehow finally put the pieces together, and can make some sense of the comment, and his slow disappearance from birding.

"Kaching!" was the call of my late friend Pete Fahey whenever we stumbled on a new bird. You add a bird to your list - day list, year list, life list, what have you - and the brain gets a little dopamine! When you start birding, it's naturally a lot more. I can still remember the excitement of finding my first Song Sparrow, my first Cedar Waxwing.

But the brain loves dopamine, my friends, and if you run those lists up chasing that dopamine, it gets harder and harder to come by. 203 birds in Douglas County for the year from January through October, and I was back in the county looking for a pretty short list of birds.

Fortunately, as I hope I've made clear, this year has hardly at all been about finding birds. That is absolutely the goal that I laid down to drive the year: "See as many birds as possible in Douglas County in 2021 through monthly trips," but it may be fair to say that it's been a gimmick to trick me into getting out of the house, taking in some beautiful scenery, getting some quiet time, getting out birding with people, and finding the best peach stands.

This is a long ramble to get at this idea: I didn't have much to find on this trip. The year had been pretty successful! My dopamine potential from birds was going to be quite low. Still, I *loved* this trip out to Douglas in November. Hopefully this all comes through in the posts and pictures.

Head Start

I dropped my son off in Ellensburg after Thanksgiving weekend, and stayed in Ellensburg on Sunday night. Writing has continued to keep me almost oppressively busy at times, and I couldn't imagine pressing on to East Wenatchee with any energy left to write. But I still wanted to make a run for Barn Owls early Monday morning, so I left dark and early from Ellensburg, and got to the Waterville Plateau West of Waterville before sunup.

Common Ravens on Highway 2

This picture is interesting. I wish I could remember who told me, and it may have been the aforementioned Peter Fahey, but I've been told that a way to tell ravens from crows is how they use our roads. Ravens will fly along the roads, while crows will cross them. There may be nothing to that at all, but I'm slowly collecting data on this!

The morning was pretty owl-free! I have wondered if I needed to leave earlier? I gave it a good try, though, and did not mind getting to see the sun rise on another day in Douglas.

Maybe it's just because we're trapped in the hills, the trees, and the giant singular monochrome cloud of Novembruary on the West side of the state, but. . . I just couldn't get enough of the sky on this trip.

Horned Larks, American Kestrels, and Rough-legged Hawks kept me company this morning, as I generally poked around the drive North from Waterville towards Mansfield.

Rough-legged Hawk

American Kestrel

Waterville Plateau morning

I didn't know what to expect from the weather from the morning, but was happy enough to see the skies starting to clear.

Gyrfalcon search

One bird that has eluded me during the year (and during my life) is the granddaddy of all falcons - the Gyrfalcon. The Waterville Plateau is as good a place as any to find these birds, although their protected status means that locations of sightings are not readily available. I've talked to fine local birders who claim that they have only a small handful of sightings over decades birding Douglas County. So I knew my odds were a little thin.

Still, it was neat to drive the areas where they are expected, and to scan the right settings with some extra care. Most of this driving was West of Mansfield, slowly driving the roads North and South of Highway 172. The cast of characters did not change much!

This is not a Gyrfalcon, just a Rough-legged Hawk getting my hopes up.

This is not even a Rough-legged Hawk, just a rock getting my hopes up.

These piles of rubble, cleared to make the fields farmable, have made good perches for Gyrfalcons during Douglas County winters. I knew that Gyrfalcons liked these lower perches, as they come from pretty barren areas up north, where tall trees are not the norm.

Occasionally, I would come across birds on distant perches and would have to stop and puzzle over the landscape. Would it help me see the bird better if I drove up and around to the other side of this "block". With roads usually spaced a mile or so apart, you can see what I was dealing with: The important distinction "Is that bird more or less than a half-mile away?" Add in the gentle rolling landscape, and North/South considerations, it was actually kind of fun to try to work out the potential value of a new viewpoint.

Now, I almost always choose a different viewpoint! The November roads were not all that bad. I was worried some about mud on the backroads, but the last bit of precipitation was far enough back. This was a few hours of my morning - taking in the quiet Douglas scenery.

No shortage of habitat to scan

Rough Patch

I'd stopped in at the local cafe in Mansfield for the first time back in March. In that post I'd described some conversations - honestly just tried to portray them as they were without any politics behind them. I'm 8 billion miles from qualified to make any political statements here. But when your life and travels take you from red to blue, or the other direction, it's part of the trip. Just as much as the change in scenery, birds, and flora.

I've been back to the Golden Grain Cafe many a time since. The food has always hit the spot, and the gal who has usually been there at the register (and the phone, and the grill, and the coffee maker), has always been courteous and friendly.

On this day, I came in and found a seat near an outlet, giving me a chance to check for emails, and see if there were any interesting sightings to follow. The TV was on, and as one customer came in, there was talk on the news about a hit and run fatality in Pierce County.

"Well, that's one less of those Inslee people."

Pause for me reader. I know. I'm there with you. But I had a morning to think on this, and a month since to hold it back up and look at it. This is something that came to mind:

Back in October, my daughter had asked me to take her around trick-or-treating. This was pretty amazing. She's in high school. But she put the effort in on a costume, and wanted that time with me, so I was ready to go in a heartbeat.

I was amazed this year at the production that had gone into so many people's houses. At one home, the lawn had been done up with gravestones, among other spooky decorations. In this makeshift graveyard, there was a lawn chair, providing a seat for a skeleton, holding a sign reading "I did my own resirch."

We had both laughed at the time.

My question that morning was, "How am I any different from the guy at the cafe?"

We're in a rough patch, folks. I know that you might have answers to the question I just posed, and don't worry, I had some too, but. . . the answers are not as important as the question.

Mansfield Cemetery

Yes, this was my next stop. While I was there for redpolls (not found), it was not a bad scene for my continued reflection. I most certainly never knew any of these people. You may never have known them either. Some of them led long difficult lives. Some may have left too soon. Most of them almost certainly had rough patches and made mistakes. But I would bet all of them were loved. They were loved ones.

I'm done on this topic. Life is amazing and valuable. Lives are amazing and valuable. That's all. Be kind folks - it's a rough patch.

I leave my camera parts in interesting places when I get caught up in pensive activities

Of course I left a lens here - that's what I do!

Eastward!

Another old sighting of Common Redpolls had been at Barker Canyon. This was a road I had not yet driven! So, once I had circled back and found my longer lens sitting peacefully in the soft green grass of the Mansfield Cemetery, I bee-lined it for Barker Canyon, my eyes open for Gyrfalcons the whole way.

What a neat road! I'm so glad I took it, despite the fact that I added no birds at all. Some birds that would ordinarily be nice surprises included Bewick's and Canyon Wrens. The former is just a higher-coded bird (for now) in the county, and the latter is a little tougher to find in winter months. Both were heard only on stops along the way.

Barker Canyon Road to Banks Lake - Steamboat Rock in the distance.

The lake itself provides some nice county birding fun, with Douglas County carving out just the tiniest bit of real estate here. I saw a few mergansers (Hooded and Common) as well as some Bald Eagles from this viewpoint. Northern Harriers patrolled the fields on the way down as well.

Big Bend - one last (?) time

Why did the hipster burn his lips?

He was drinking coffee before it was cool.

So. . . I'll own this. My daughter called me out on this when I was going on about how all of the indie pop singer girls are just imitating the same set of vocal techniques (turning an s into a sh, abusing vowels in unspeakable ways). "Why can't you just let people enjoy things? You're such a snooty hipster." And yeah, I found Big Bend this year (not the first person) and felt like I'd discovered plutonium (or to continue the analogy, Lorde, or cafe macchiato).

At best, I hope this approach on big years has been fun and has held some novelty. I *like* novelty! At its worst it becomes self-congratulatory hooey, so I apologize if I've ever poked any fun at the Usual Birding Plan. There are so many ways to find birds and enjoy them.

But Big Bend...

I was back looking for Sharp-Tailed Grouse, a bird I've not seen in Washington, and one that's become harder to find in Douglas County, given recent fires. I found a whole mess of good birds back in the summer, and have made some pretty lengthy hikes into the site. I've even scared up some grouse that... may have been Sharp-tailed? Others have found them there this year, so I wanted to give it one more try.

Thoughts on what this track is?

It's about as quiet a place as I've been to this year, on this particular day. No good for a birder, but great for the soul. I strolled in, not quite as far as my camping spot in June, but far enough to take me past some of the birches where these guys might be found when snow hits the ground.

Birches along China Creek

Also visible in the picture here is Snowberry. There was a lot of it along this walk (at the China Creek entrance), and I figure the grouse here will do fine through the winter. I don't know if I'll be back to this spot, which kind of breaks my heart, but it would bring a bit of satisfaction and joy to see a picture of a sharp-tailed in one of these trees from another birder.

Gratuitous Pictures of the Sky