Chelan County Birding

Chelan County birding.  

Lake Chelan - a pic from my 39 Counties blog

Well, I wrapped up the year in Mason County in 2015 (www.masoncountybirding.blogspot.com) and I honestly did enjoy focusing on a single county. (For documentation of a year where I did quite the opposite, please refer to www.39counties.blogspot.com  This year, I'm not running after any county records, but I'm going to make Chelan County the place I visit; I'll see what I can dig up over the course of a year.

Last year I found every code 1 bird in Mason, almost all of the code two birds (although those misses - Cinnamon Teal and Common Murre are already changed to threes over at Washington Birder), and about 80 percent of the threes.  A dozen or so rare birds over the course of the year, and without even chasing, I'd found 180 species!

In Chelan, the same kind of effort would put me at almost 200.  So...?  The record in Chelan County is over 240 (?????), so that's not a goal.  It's almost refreshing *not* to have a county record in reach!  200 is a little bit of a stretch, and here's what will make it easier/tougher:

Chelan County Checklist from Washington Birder:  www.wabirder.org

Chelan county is big.  You could fit quite a few Mason Counties into Chelan!!  Many of the good diverse habitats are not too far from each other, but it's still quite a large county, and places like Washington Pass can't even be accessed without an hour or more driving around through other counties.

small

BIG like three times bigger

Chelan county is a little farther away.  Mason was a little over an hour from home.  Stevens pass is more like an hour and a half.  Wenatchee is quite a drive from there!  It will be harder to sneak over for unplanned trips for a couple hours.

Chelan County has serious birders regularly covering different parts of the county.  This could be very helpful as there are eyes and ears out there hunting for new birds

So I researched, I contacted people, and truth be told have already made the first trip. I hadn't planned on doing a blog, but...

Before the trip:  "Here is contact information for Tim Brennan, who will be blogging..."   

During the trip: "Mom, this is Tim.  He's doing a blog this year and would love to come see your feeders." 

After the trip: "Hey Tim!  Where's the blog?"

So... Grumble grumble grumble... Illgohednriblog... Haha.  I'll apologize in advance for January's lack of photos, and fuzzy narrative on events that have become a little evanescent.

It won't be quite this thorough!

Full days, but less focus on big days.  New birds, but not wringing every bird I can out of every trip like last time. It also may not even be monthly.  I picked up coaching track for my son and daughter's school (in the spring!  The spring!!!), so there will be a month or two where I will have to watch birds arrive and then make a big run over at the end of May. Maybe in the end, something like a six-trip year will still yield a lot of fun and a lot of birds.  We shall see.

I still do want to get to know the county a little bit more than just the birds.  That was a nice theme.  I'll keep my anthropology, geology, limnology, mycology, lepidoptery, forestry and foodie hats on.  It should also be quite a year for pictures, with Lake Chelan, the Cascades, and the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers, not to mention the other beautiful places you and I haven't been to yet.

The Columbia River from "39 Counties"