February 18th - Midwinter birds with Black

On the road - picture taken by a happy passenger

As promised

I made a promise to produce some extremely tardy posts for this, and WOW, almost two months later is what I would call "Mission Accomplished".   The week of February 15-19 was mid-winter break for me, so I took the last two days of it to make a run to Chelan County with Kevin Black.

Kevin and I have been birding together off and on for three years or more, including King, Mason, Yakima, Benton, Klickitat, Franklin, Walla Walla, Grant and Okanogan Counties.  We've helped each other with the little corners we know well - he helped me grab my 100th bird in Franklin, where he holds the Big Year record, and I helped him find his 100th in King, where I live.  Both of us had been through Chelan now and then but have spent very little focused time birding in the county before this year.

Eaaaaarlllyyy

Unlike this post, the birding day started quite early for Kevin and I.  He left Vancouver dark and early, and we made it almost to Chelan when it started to get light.  A few Kittitas birds caught our eye, and we spent an awful lot of time staring at a Bald Eagle trying to turn it into a Golden Eagle.  Kevin... poor silly optimistic kid... We also trudged up a snowpacked trail, occasionally dropping in through the surface up to our knee.

"Golden Eagle".  It wasn't the first time that Kevin called it out for the day.  It was the first time he was right, though, and not the last!  We watched a bird that would have escaped my attention so easily, getting glimpses of it and photos before it slipped away.  Sure enough, it was a Golden Eagle!  These birds are a code 2 in Chelan, so they aren't as common as crows, and not as rare as Spotted Owls.  I don't get to see them all that often, so it was a very nice find.  "64!"  I smiled, finally adding to the year tally.  This is exactly why I love having Kevin along.  He has an excellent eye, not only for birds but for habitat. 

Golden Eagle! - Photo Kevin Black

We continued up the road and arrived at the...

Leavenworth Fish Hatchery


This turned out to be a nice bit of a walk, and it didn't take long for it to be productive.  One of the species we were looking for was Barrow's Goldeneye.  Two of them circled the parking lot as we entered!  (65)   We were given directions at the visitor center regarding trail use.  During the winter, the hatchery grounds are used for cross-country skiing.  Although it wasn't an absolute flurry as it was last time I had visited, the trails were still well covered in snow and in use.  Kevin and I worked our way along the river to stay off of the grooves the skiers had created along the trail.  At a bridge looking down into Icicle Creek, we found an American Dipper (66) and finally a Great Blue Heron (67).  There may be easy places to find these dinosaurs in Chelan County, but I don't know of them yet.

Barrow's Goldeneye - Photo Kevin Black

"Golden Eagle"  Kevin called again.  "Wait... three."   We sat and watched three of these birds circling over the river for a few minutes, gradually rising and then disappearing over the ridge towards Highway 97.  We had been noting just earlier that you can't beat a Golden Eagle, but the discussion now of course turned to the fact that three Golden Eagles obviously beats one.  The steam kettle call of a Varied Thrush broke into our conversation, reminding us of course that nothing really beats a Varied Thrush, right?



Sleeping Lady Resort
 

Typical view that morning near Leavenworth

We made our way in and grabbed some coffee and provisions, asking one of the employees if the White-headed Woodpeckers had been seen lately.  "Oh, I think that they are a spring bird, sir!" we were told.  Kevin and I raised eyebrows at each other.  I had explained to him how helpful the staff here was, and how knowledgeable they are about the woodpeckers.  A second try did the trick, as we found an older gentleman who knew that they were year-round 'They were around until the heavy snow hit." He explained, "But they'll be back".

Kevin and I walked the grounds, picking up a Pygmy Nuthatch (68) as we did.  Three species of nuthatches can be found in Chelan pretty regularly.  With Pygmy found in addition to Red-breasted, I just had to keep an ear out for the nasal calls of the White-breasted ones.  We drove farther up Icicle Creek trying for Northern Pygmy Owl without luck.  On the way back into Leavenworth, we had some nice luck with a Common Redpoll seen perched in a tree near some residences.

May I say

That an awful lot of the county is filled with some really loud rivers.  As an ear birder, it's a challenge!  I spent last year in Mason County, where the one major river is the Skokomish, a slow moving river in most stretches, and calmed by a light year of snowpack in the Olympics.  Every river in Chelan County seems to be an absolute torrent. 

While writing this, my thoughts went to an old friend, Monty Carter, who was lost in the Wenatchee River five years back.  He was always a kid at heart, and what kids do is take their shoes off and jump into the river for a swim.  If you read this and want to throw some thoughts and/or prayers my way for a safe year of travel, I'd appreciate the sentiment.

Okay, back to birds!

The Columbia

Kevin and I hit the Columbia next, skipping right over Cashmere and Wenatchee.  My thoughts for the year are to view the Columbia in the afternoons whenever I can, just for the lighting.  The day had largely gotten away from us, so we needed to get on some water birds.  As we scoped for them from a pullout near Rocky Reach Dam, we got Horned and Pied-billed Grebes, Common Loons, and a lot of nice noise from the hillside behind us.   Canyon Wren (69), Say's Phoebe (70) and Ruby-crowned Kinglet (71) all called from the cliffs and surrounding brushy areas. 

Canyon Wren is listed as a code three bird, so it was quite welcome.  All of the code 1-2 birds (relatively easy to find/common) in the county add up to 161, which leaves 40 birds or so that I'll need to find that are on the tougher side if I'm going to reach the goal of 200 birds for the year.  Maybe even more than the running total, this side total will give me an idea of how things are going as the seasons move along.

Townsend's Solitaire - Photo Kevin Black

We took a brief run up Swakane Canyon Road, and found a Townsend's Solitaire (72).  Not a difficult bird in terms of its code, but I will admit that I rarely expect.  I love the whole thrush family, and this is one member that I don't have totally figured out in terms of habitat.  Better for it to find me than for me to try to find it!   We picked through a pretty significant sparrow patch, but got nothing outside of the usual zonotrichia sparrows and a few juncos.

Chelan-ish
 

Chelan Gorge Road

American Kestrel - Photo Kevin Black

In Chelan, we took a road I'd never hit before, following up on sightings for Bohemian Waxwings and Prairie Falcon.  The Chelan Gorge road heads Southeast out of town and gives a nice view of the Chelan River far far below.  We made few stops as we drove, honestly just looking for anything that looked like waxwing habitat.  We found a Merlin on the way, and at one stop listened to a Rock Wren (73) making its buzzy calls from the nearby talus.

"Sunset's in an hour, Kev..." I warned, looking at the handy app on my phone.  We wondered where the day had gone, and tried to figure out what our last targets should be for the day.  We drove up into Chelan, and back down to the Columbia on the other side (the highway does not continue along the Columbia during this stretch), where we made our way to Beebe Springs.  We scanned the little ponds in vain for Gadwall that had been sighted there, and continued up to a large beaver pond where Virginia Rail has been reported.  We both tried our best imitations of rails, and got one to respond (74).  This is another tough bird in the county, as there just isn't a lot of marshy habitat as the mountains drop down to the Columbia.

Ducks on the lake, light holding on

Wapato Lake was the next destination, and we found some good birds!  The numbers were pretty impressive, and I was happy to add Greater Scaup (75) at long last.  This is one of those rare occasions where I'll just drop in a link to the eBird report, as the stop was simply so productive.


Wapato Lake - February 18th

Union Valley Road at Dusk

We sat there looking over the lake... looking at the time... looking at the daylight holding on somehow.  Puzzled, I looked at my phone, and realize that the handy dandy sunrise/sunset app was still set for the last date I had used it in January.  Sheepishly, I thumbed it forward to the current date, and we enjoyed the fact that we had more twilight to work with.

Dinner in Chelan

With the remnants, we went up to Union Valley Road, taking it farther than I had in January.  We had hopes of owls, but came up empty, turning around at a high spot and enjoying the view of the lake before heading back down for the evening. 

Dinner at Tin Lilly (good food!) and then off to bed at the Comfort Inn in Wenatchee.