Epiblogue - Best pics of the year

Picture number zero - this one doesn't count in the count, but is still my favorite picture of Lake Chelan.  It's from www.39counties.blogspot.com, although a reverse image search shows that a couple of other sites liked it enough to use the image without citation.  Oh well!  Here are my favorite pictures of the year.

Winter on The Columbia:  This was a picture from Walla Walla Point Park - a great vantage point for waterfowl in the winter

Pulled over on the side of the road as the sky turned lavender - between Leavenworth and Stevens Pass

Leavenworth Fish Hatchery in February.  It's open for cross country skiing, although Kevin and I just walked the grounds.

Union Valley Road near the top, moon above.  February.

If you are driving towards Camas Meadows, and don't know where the turn is, you could end up here too.  April

Nahahum Canyon North of Cashmere in April

Oklahoma Gulch - a neat little road just before 97 climbs up away from the Columbia towards Chelan

Forest recently treated with a prescribed burn.  Chumstick HIghway in May.

Burch Mountain, above Wenatchee

Wenatchee at night - East Wenatchee across the river.  Taken from Burch Mountain

View down into the Icicle Creek Valley into Leavenworth from Mountain Home Road

Camas Meadows and a lovely pic of the family - Father's Day

Blackbird Island - Leavenworth - Father's Day

Red Currants - it was so upsetting to find out *after* returning that these were edibles - Mud Mountain Road (a kind of beautiful and occasionally treacherous road running from Entiat Valley Road to Navarre Coulee Road)

Chelan Gorge - June

One of the best places I didn't drive to - This lovely place was a boat ride (on the Lady of the Lake) and a bike ride from there.  It's also part of one of many good stories from the year.

Glacier Peak - one of the highest peaks in the state and not often seen because so many high peaks are around it.  I pushed my son and nephew through aggressive mosquitoes and fairly steep paths up Mount McCausland to get this view. Technically not Chelan County outside of the trees and rock in the foreground, but part of the year's travels.  Incidentally, over yonder in Snohomish County I'll be doing a good bit of birding next year.

Foothills above Wenatchee

The view from Sahale Glacier Camp - August.  This was a tough tough hike, but worth it for the views.  There were some good birds added on the trip as well - American Pipit, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch and Sooty Grouse among them

Wenatchee Confluence Park

Chelan Ridge Hawkwatch Observatory.  You have to go here.  Have. To.   Go there.  Why are you reading this? Go there.

Spooky burned forest - Chelan Ridge, October

A special moment from Chelan Ridge - October

Horan Natural Area - November.  Fall comes later than I'd expected, color-wise.

Bad enough to include it once, but I included it here again.  On the way up to Tronsen Creek (Chelan County), I drove through a little swath of Kittitas County.  I hope that's forgiven, and that the inclusion of this picture is defensible.

Epiblogue - birds by the numbers

197

Well, it was awfully close!  I was thinking of getting a full list of the birds, by code, that I saw this year.  Then I thought about it more carefully and decided that would be a little ridiculous, then changed my mind back again, so before it changes one more time... Birds whose pictures are included have a "P" next to them... because lord knows many are hard to see.

Code 1 birds:  All in bold, because I found all 94 of them 

Canada Goose (P)
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead 
Common Goldeneye 
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
California Quail
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey (P)
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk (P)

American Coot
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Common Nighthawk
Rufous Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-naped Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel (P)
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Western Wood-Pewee
Hammond's Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Say's Phoebe
Western Kingbird (P)
Eastern Kingbird (P)
Cassin's Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Steller's Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Rock Wren
House Wren
American Dipper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
European Starling

Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Yellow Warbler (P)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Tanager (P)
Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (P)
House Finch
Cassin's Finch
Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow




Code Two:  Bold if I had it (63 birds) not if I missed it (6 elusive birds)

Cackling Goose
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Barrow's Goldeneye (P)
Chukar
Ring-necked Pheasant
Ruffed Grouse (P)
Dusky Grouse
Sooty Grouse
Wild Turkey
Red-necked Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Golden Eagle (P)
Least Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Eurasian Collared Dove
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Barred Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl

Common Poorwill
Black Swift
Vaux's Swift
White-throated Swift
Lewis's Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker
White-headed Woodpecker (P)
Merlin
Willow Flycatcher
Pacific-Slope Flycatcher
Northern Shrike
Gray Jay
Clark's Nutcracker
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Pygmy Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Pacific Wren
Western Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire (P)
Veery
Varied Thrush
Gray Catbird
American Pipit
Bohemian Waxwing
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat (P)
Brewer's Sparow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Lazuli Bunting
Evening Grosbeak

I didn't miss many, but each one of those was a hard one to miss!  The hearing is still intact, and I'm pretty good at hearing Brown Creepers - just never actually had any call for me this year.  Bohemian Waxwings and Lewis's Woodpeckers are birds I don't get to enjoy every year, so those were hard misses as well.  Least Sandpipers were missed simply from missing so much of migration, and Caspian Terns could possibly go into that category as well (although I think there was only one sighting of a single bird all year!).  Pintails were a puzzle.  They appeared to be gone for most of the year except for a single sighting from May - dozens of ducks up near Stehekin.  Still don't understand how they operate in Chelan.

Code 3 birds:  Same thing with bold and normal type.  I saw 26 of them, and missed 10.

Greater White-fronted Goose
Tundra Swan
Trumpeter Swan
American Wigeon
Harlequin Duck (P)
White-tailed Ptarmigan
Eared Grebe
Northern Goshawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Virginia Rail
Sandhill Crane
Greater Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope (P)
Bonaparte's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Band-tailed Pigeon

Flammulated Owl
Western Screech-Owl
Spotted Owl
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Black-backed Woodpecker
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Falcon
Gray Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Canyon Wren
Marsh Wren
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Lark Sparrow (P)
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Pine Grosbeak (P)
Purple Finch

A handful of these were seen multiple times through the year, and seem to have been seen often enough to suggest a change in the rating.  Lark Sparrows, Canyon Wrens and Virginia Rails come to mind with about three different places for each.  Lark Sparrows were ones I had on Union Valley Road, Burch Mountain, and Malaga Road.   Canyon Wrens seem to be common enough along the Columbia.  Virginia Rail was found at Beebe Springs, Meadow Lake (near Malaga), and Little Wenatchee River Road (that one won't show up on eBird, but was a well-heard grunt call.  It wasn't relocated by other observers later).


Code 4 and 5 birds

The birds above added up to 183, so there must be 14 more:

Surf Scoter (4) (P)
Red-breasted Merganser (4)
Gray Partridge (4)
American White Pelican (4)
Sora (4)
American Three-toed Woodpecker (4)
Least Flycatcher (4)
Loggerhead Shrike (4) (P)
Bewick's Wren (4)
Black-throated Gray Warbler (4) (P)

American Tree Sparrow (4) (P)
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch (4)
Common Redpoll (4)
Lesser Goldfinch (5)

The Lesser Goldfinches may be moving in to the Cashmere area - we can see.  I'm surprised to see Black-throated Gray as a 4;  I had it in three different locations during the year. Bewick's Wren has become commonplace at Confluence, and I had another sighting at Number Two Canyon.  None of the others were necessarily surprises, given the habitat.  The Sora may not show up as a point on eBird, so it's worth noting that it was heard at the marsh on Little Wenatchee River Road.  A nice close clear "Kerwee!" call.

Could this have been 200?  Could it still be??   Maybe yes maybe no.  I think there were one or two trips where it seemed like a good time to get going home... and more searching could have turned up a Brown Creeper, or maybe a Lewis's Woodpecker.  There may have been rarer birds sitting under my nose that I missed!  I also could have chased.  One week in late October, Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Eared Grebes, Northern Pintails, and a Long-tailed Duck were all seen in between trips.  That could have done it, but... it's not the nature of my years to build it around chasing. 

Could I have gotten to more places?? Well, this was a long year with a lot of roads travelled.  If I could have done any more, it might have been the Enchantments (although the process to get a pass is a little daunting), or maybe areas farther north and west of Lake Wenatchee, but all in all, I loved getting to explore as much as I did.  Glad to have come out of some of the places intact!

Waking up in Chelan: Sunday 11/6

196...

I had started the year in Chelan with the idea that monthly trips from January to November, and no unplanned trips over to chase sightings, would lead me to almost 200 species for the year.  By the numbers, it seemed like it would be a pretty close thing.  Having done something similar in Mason County the year before, I felt like it would be all of the code 1 birds (yep!  All 94 were seen), almost all of the code 2 birds (63 of 69) and 75% or so of the code three birds (25 of 36).   There had been 14 rarer birds on top of that to bring me to 196 on my last day in the county. 

The list of birds that I thought were possible was still pretty long!  Two or three dozen of them, with most of them being possibilities along the Columbia (Loons, grebes, ducks, gulls, shorebirds, or maybe even a Snow Bunting or Lapland Longspur on the pebbly shores of the Columbia). 

I woke up in the hotel before breakfast and decided to make one more attempt for Barn Owl.  Horse Lake Preserve on the West end of town had a single sighting that year, so I thought I'd make an attempt there (after so many failures at the Wenatchee Waterfront).  It's a pretty steep climb up the road, and... mud. 

Horse Lake Preserve: Barn Owl O'clock

Dang it.  Mud.  After the previous morning, I had a firm belief that it wasn't worth it.  I parked as soon as I felt the traction disappearing (with a much clearer picture of how I would be turning the car around and returning) and walked.  It was amazing how desolate this was.  I expected to hear some sparrows, see some hawks, but all I got were two species - Chukar and California Quail.  Even a Rough-legged Hawk would have been a nice find, and I'm not completely sure why this habitat isn't quite for them (no records).  I called it good luck that I wasn't stuck in the mud again, and returned to the hotel for breakfast.

Birding the Columbia

In my recent post on scouting for the Blanket Trip, I went step by step through the spots where one can pull over and look for birds along the Columbia.  I hit em all.  I looked at a lot of Horned Grebes, Common Loons, American Wigeons and Coots.  I'd love to say I found something new, but the whole stretch had me coming up empty.  Will Risk was a good stop, if only for mushrooms!

I added in another stop at Lake Chelan, and one new stop - Chelan Falls State Park.   This was an interesting stop, as I did end up finding a good bird, if not a new one:

A really really bad picture of a Surf Scoter :)

Heading across the street, Powerhouse Road was gated off at Long Park, so I couldn't fully investigate all of the little inlets and ponds there, but I did get a good view of some birds I'd seen but one other time during the year.

Barrow's Goldeneyes - Chelan Falls State Park

Fall at Chelan Falls State Park

196 and holding.   I even went up to Wells Dam, and found nothing but Common Loons.  Noon thirty came and I decided there was one more bird to try for.  One!    Now, I was four short of my goal for the year, but there was the possibility of minor consolation, as my life list in the county was now at 199.  200 for the life list would be a nice way to finish up the year.

Tronsen Creek

There had been talk on the listservs about Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Wenatchee Mountains, and I decided that Tronsen Creek would be the way in.

Four levels of zoom for you here.

Somewhere between Wenatchee and Cle Elum off of Highway 97

Take NF 9706 to 9712...

Which doesn't really dead end where that last picture seemed to say it did

And here is a hike for Tronsen Creek

I kept a nice balance of caution and optimism as I climbed, making sure that I never quite got to the point of no return. 

At one point, I got one of the most beautiful pictures of the entire year:

And I thought to myself, THIS... this is why I make these trips.  I was taking in this beautiful scene and thinking of all of the different features  - the yellow/orange of Western Larches, the mixed greenery of Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir, the Cascades in the backdrop behind layers of foothills.  And I thought... this is so much of my year in one picture.  Where else could I really be except in Chelan County? :)

Of course... I had to check the map, and realized that I was technically in Kittitas at the moment and... not entirely sure if I was facing the right direction for any of it at all to be in Chelan.  Ignore those facts though.  It's a pretty picture.

The hike up the trail at Tronsen Creek immediately takes you out of Kittitas and into Chelan.  I immediately heard the tapping of a woodpecker.   Hairy.  I smiled at the thought that finding this bird I'd looked for all year would be that easy.  I pulled up Black-backed Woodpecker on my phone and played as I walked for a little bit. 

That little bit wasn't very long, and the playback turned out to be completely unnecessary.  I stopped playing and listened, hearing the tapping in a copse of trees right in front of me.  I got the binoculars on it and watched a completely unaffected Black-backed Woodpecker, hard at work on a tree.  Life looks at my 200th bird in the county.  I'd only taken my phone with me, so these will have to do:

I included two, so that you could zoom in and see that the black blob on the tree moved... see...
Look, just enjoy the pretty pictures:

Sun setting on my year in Chelan

200.  Not for the year, but for my life list. The year would have to stay at 197 after a pretty good effort.  I also finished with a new place, and it really was a gorgeous place.  I'll sneak another entry or two in here to recap the list itself and include pictures of some of the ridiculously beautiful places I was blessed enough to see.

Thanks for reading, y'all, and happy birding.