November 30th: Shutout Averted

 

November Skies - Douglas County

A Rare Chase

I'm not usually chasing birds, but I got an email from Meredith, a birder in Bridgeport who had been told of (and found) a Barred Owl in town. I had birded the previous day in Douglas County and had found a room in Grand Coulee for the night. This seemed like as good a plan as any as I was wrapping up the year. 

Sitting at 203 species for the year, I had a short list of birds I was still hoping to find, and a few of them seemed to be calling me to Bridgeport. Barred Owls have slowly been making their way towards the Columbia Basin, so it has not been surprising to see them dipping their toes into Douglas County in places like Bridgeport and East Wenatchee during the year. 

I made the drive and arrived in Bridgeport while it was still dark. It was a little windy, but still very birdable. I drove the north edge of town, stopping every 1/3 of a mile or so. I would get out, listen for a little bit, then call for Barred Owls. I do a passable call, and it's gotten responses numerous times, so when I got no response, I figured either the owl had moved on, or it just isn't a time of year where they are very vocal. 

Bridgeport Bar, Wells Wildlife Area, maybe both

There are so many little patches of wildlife areas around here and the naming seems, to me, a bit fluid. I was, at any rate, birding along Grange Road after I left Bridgeport. It felt like it was close enough to Barn Owl o'clock, so I just sat in the car, tried to stay warm, and watched the fields for owls. Northern Harriers got me excited once, but that was about it. Once it got light enough, I got out of the car and did a walk of the area. 

White-crowned Sparrows

One bird of note, although not a new one for the year, was a Pacific Wren. I'd come across one back in February here, so this was not completely unexpected, but still a nice bird. The sparrows all turned out to be White-crowned, and Song Sparrows, as well as Spotted Towhees, with a single American Tree Sparrow making for a nice addition.

Likely a Sharp-shinned Hawk, with the squared off tail

No new birds, but a nice walk. I looked back, and eBird tells me I've seen 63 species of birds here over the last decade or so. It's definitely worth a stop!

A short walk with the champ

I did get a hold of Meredith, and we decided to meet up to check out the trees where the Barred Owl had been seen previously. This was a nice treat. Meredith, to be perfectly clear, has a longer lifetime list in Douglas than any other birder. It took some work in the last few years to finally chase that record down, but she recently passed that mark of 270 birds, and is on her way to 280. 

For perspective, and to help explain part of the draw to Douglas County for me, there are only about a dozen people with lists over 200 in the county. Most are actually sitting in the low 200's, but a small handful gave hints that there are far more birds here than most people get a chance to see. When there is such a big gap between 210 and 260, it tells me a place needs a little more exploring!

A good few years back, I got to close out a year in Mason County with the birder who held the county record, and that was quite a treat too. In the middle of an endeavor like this, there are nearly endless questions to ask and stories to share about people, places and birds. 

I couldn't even start to sum up all of what we talked about. Most of it was done while strolling the back avenues of Bridgeport. One bit that made me smile was hearing about Meredith's nemesis yard bird - Black-billed Magpie. Anyone who can smile while talking about their nemesis is likely going about all of this right. If anyone has seen "too many birds" in the county, it's Meredith, but it hasn't taken the spark out of her searches. 

For the purposes of the morning, I had two things I learned: 

1) Lake Pateros is the most amazing place to look for birds in the winter. Or... it's completely useless because the birds are too far away. 

It was an enormous relief to hear this from Meredith. I knew from eBird that some nice birds have been found there, but there have been times where I've gone only to find a bunch of tiny dots to sort through! So, I did make plans to at least check it out, but not to kill myself trying to identify every dot. 

2) Dezellem Road is drivable.

I. . . have made poor November decisions in my car before and have really tried to be the smartest version of myself ever since. But Meredith green-lighted this trip, pointing out that Common Redpolls might be a possibility. I was excited to hear this, and keen on trying a new road. 

Armed with this knowledge I struck out for the morning's explorations.

Lake Pateros

...was full of distant dots. Moving on.

Dezellem Hill Road

Oh man, what a pretty drive! This did contain some well-burned areas as well, which was hard to see, but it was still a nice bit of Ponderosa Pine habitat. Red-breasted Nuthatches, Spotted Towhees, and a Hairy Woodpecker were the highlights bird-wise, and I was greeted by a Golden Eagle smack dab in front of my face as I reached the plateau. Curse me and my slow reactions - no picture. 

You likely have no reason to go here

This picture is really growing on me. There have been some pretty ones this year, so a muddy road might be a tough candidate, but the picture tells you a lot. It really does drop off here, and this really was not a great road. It was drivable as far as I took it. It may have been a little bit more, but when your gps no longer identifies the space in front of you as "road" it's usually time to turn back. 

You're looking right off the top of the Northern Prow of the Waterville Plateau. Everything out in the distance is Okanogan County, and the Columbia is deep below, dividing the two. 

How I got there - and I never called it "How to get there". I can't advise things like this. Be careful folks. 

How I got there

God it was beautiful up here. So empty, with views for miles off to the North. I came across another Golden Eagle, and an unkindness of ravens (what an unkind name for wonderful birds!). Nothing else to do but throw some pictures up. These include the area shown, as well as other pictures as I drove back along Division Road to Mansfield. 

Golden Eagle right before it disappeared 

The Road I did not take

Chief Joseph Dam from above

Breaking up the no-hitter

I had been in Douglas County for a couple days now and was still without a single bird to add to my year list. I had scored one bird in October (a Golden-crowned Sparrow for 203) but appeared to be stalled out there. I decided to head South and East from Mansfield to try one more time for Gyrfalcons, Lapland Longspurs, and Gray-crowned Rosy-finches. 

I went south on Heritage Road, stopping at a copse of trees where I had a couple Ring-necked Pheasant hens, and two Great Horned Owls. 

I decided that Saint Andrews Road was the right play. There had been Gray-crowned Rosy-finches sighted there the previous winter on a couple occasions, so why not? 

The highlight here was a just-cooperative-enough Prairie Falcon that perched on the power poles for me, but swooped a couple poles down if I got just a little too close. 

In an effort to maintain transparency, and highlight my limitations as a birder... well, wait, first let's admire this photo. You've waited all year for a five-star photo from me, and finally we have one! Gorgeous shot of a gorgeous bird. 

But this makes it even funnier, if you'll allow a little self-effacing humor here. With a bird that I had crippling views and photos as shown here, I initially misidentified it as a Merlin. The only thing I can figure is that the wings being backlit in the top photos made the bird seem darker than I would expect from a Prairie Falcon. That, and . . . maybe a West side bias? I've just seen more Merlins so that is the default? But now I'm just looking at this image and . . . yeah. 

Thank you to the eBird reviewer who caught this. :D

Bunt single

If you've been to a baseball game when a no-hitter is happening, you know how it gets in the ninth inning. The pitcher has been doing an amazing job, and there's a hush in the crowd - you don't talk about the no-hitter. Batters also respect the whole thing and put in their best effort. 

If you saw someone hit a bunt single in these circumstances, it would be so distasteful. You don't take away an impressive feat with something so. . . gimmicky.

November was killing me. I'd had no new birds despite putting in my best effort. And how did I break November's stranglehold on my year list? With a heard-only bird. 204 for the year, a Lapland Longspur. There were flocks of Horned Larks here and there, and I finally picked out the rattle call I'd been trying to hear as one of the flocks crossed overhead, and then over the rise out of sight. 

Some people do stick to a seen-only list (and some to photos only!), but I had worked pretty hard to prepare for this one and was happy to count it. Snow Buntings have a similar call. I discovered this early in the year when faced with hundreds upon hundreds of Snow Buntings! So, one of my pieces of homework prior to the trip was listening to these calls to be sure I could get on a Lapland Longspur if I heard one. 

I wish it had stuck around, but to quote the late great Pete Fahey one more time, "Birds fly."

Northern Shrike - Saint Andrews Road

My GPS told me that the quickest route home would be right out through the East side of the County and down through Grant to I-90. I called it a good trip and set out for home.