Spring break birding Part one: April 5th

Spring Break!

This year, I had a week off from school, and not the same week as the kiddos.  It's hard, because we can't plan big family trips on years like this, but the upside is more time free for birding trips.  I took advantage of it and headed out for a couple days in Chelan.

On my way in, I didn't have any solid plans for lodging, wanting to see what the weather and circumstances brought my way.  I got into the county on Monday late afternoon, and as soon as I was over Blewett Pass, I started thinking about heading up into the Wenatchee Mountains.  I made three stops in all by the time morning was up, grabbing some sleep in my car, and finding some nice owls in the process, including Northern Saw-whet (called for and got), Spotted (got while calling for Barred), and Great Horned (actively calling) Owls.  If you read on, you won't find anything pinning down where I had the Spotted Owls, sorry!  I will talk about the roads I hit, however, and it was many miles of them!  The Spotted and Saw whet were my 82nd and 83rd birds for the year, incidentally - I'll keep that tally going in parentheses the rest of the way out.

Camas Meadows road from the end of the public part

Camas Meadows was my first stop as the sun was dropping.  This road was clear for as high up as I wanted to take it, and I am really excited to get back here for some serious passerine birding at another time.  This is a spot that is reputed to have Flammulated Owls (too early for them this year), and Common Poorwills.  Those two species are ones I had nearly ten years ago as I was just starting to record my county birds, but were on the other side of the Wenatchee Mountains, just above Ellensburg near Table Mountain.  Having two life birds in one night was pretty exciting!  Camas Meadows isn't far from there, so it makes sense that they would be findable here.  There are also a lot of flycatchers to be found here, and I just realized that I haven't seen any birds in Chelan that rhyme with shmycatcher.  Sure, I have both kingbirds, and Say's Phoebe, which are all in the flycatcher family, but there are a lot of species still to find!  I'll be back for sure.

In between here, I stopped at "The Club" in Cashmere, where Villanova and North Carolina had a magical finish.  Nice to hit kind of a dive for a burger and cheering the game with the locals. 

Mission Ridge Ski area at night

Mission Creek Road above Cashmere was one I read about in "Birder's Guide to Washington", and I followed the road all the way to Sand Creek, expecting a campground at the end of the road, but finding only a trailhead.  Up the trail, there are numerous species of owls that have been found, so this was an important stop to make in April, when so many of them are actively calling. The road to Sand Creek was pretty heavily occupied by trailers and mobile homes, some appearing abandoned.  It's been interesting to see with a county that has slightly larger towns than Mason that the haves and have nots seem to have more distance between them.

My final attempt of the night was up the road to Mission Ridge Ski area from Wenatchee.  This road would be clear, I figured, and there were a number of good spots to stop and call and listen, although I would have enjoyed a little less river noise!  There are... I think... four ski areas in Chelan County, and this was only the first I'd been to, but I think at least two others will be on my list as the year plays out.

Spotted Owls

These birds have had a hard time with a loss of old-growth habitat, and I had to simply give up looking for them in Mason County last year, but on the East side, it's a slightly different story.  While they are losing nesting sites to Barred Owls for sure, there are still some nesting pairs out there, and this was the third time I had run into a Spottie in Chelan (although never anywhere else, and never intentionally!). 

One of these encounters was fairly close to Stevens Pass, and I learned that Spotted Owls have been able to make do with marginal habitat in several cases in Washington.  In this case, moving upslope cut down on some of the competition with Barred. They are declining in the Wenatchee Mountains, but April is not a bad time to catch them calling. I was bummed that it was a Barred Owl call that brought the four note responses, but I honestly am never really expecting Spotted Owls when I'm out.

Nahahum Canyon

I wanted to try this road on the recommendation of Debbie Sutherland, who pointed out that it makes a nice drive all the way to where it connects with Swakane Canyon when the weather permits. The day started with loud Chukars on the hillside.  While my ears are pretty good, these are somehow birds that I've seen more than heard!  In the morning hours they were making quite a ruckus.  I also added a few birds on the way up, including Cassin's Finch (84), Western Meadowlark (85), and Brewer's Blackbirds (86), which were plentiful at a particular farm.  Say's Phoebes provided much of the rest of the soundtrack of the morning. 

I'll admit, the Cassin's Finch song is temptingly like a Purple Finch.  I guess they're similar enough to compare to each other, but different enough to distinguish.  Almost like hearing Darrell Hammond do Bill Clinton's voice, then hearing Bill Clinton.  Close... but not quite the same thing.  Nice try, though, Cassin's Finch.

Find the turkeys!

As I got closer to the top, I found, failed to identify and drove past the intersection for Swakane Canyon.  I actually stopped there to look around and just find the most drivable road (it had just gotten muddy).  As I looked around the Ponderosa Pines, hoping to find some nuthatches or woodpeckers, I spied another new year bird - Wild Turkey! (87).  The pair meandered away up the hill and I continued.  I honestly didn't go much further, as I started to worry about the quality of the road, and the opportunities to turn around.  Varied Thrushes were calling all around me when I did the eleven point turn to head back down the hill. 

The "wide" part of the road where I whipped a U turn... ish

Peshastin Pinnacles State Park

I made this stop thinking that I would be able to pick up White-throated Swifts, which had been reported this year, and which I had seen here before.  Turkey Vultures (88), made it a double turkey morning for me, and I hiked up the sandy path.  Sandy!  The spires themselves are made of sandstone, and I'm looking forward to going over all of this with my rock-nerd coworker in the science department back at Kentwood.

Sandstone of the Peshastin Pinnacles - Swift nest at left

White-throated Swift returning to nest.  Climbing ropes above

These trees were in a lot of different places during the day.  The fragrance was staggeringly lovely.

Eventually, I did start to hear the high twittering sound of swifts, and found that it was coming from one of the openings in the sandstone.  Two of them came rocketing out of the opening, so I trained my camera on it and kept firing away until I got them returning.  More were calling from inside, and it was interesting to see the climbing ropes passing right alongside them.  This is a major attraction for climbers, so I wonder how well they tolerate the disturbance. The swifts, of course, made it 89 for the year, and an Osprey nest made it 90.  I know they're back in the state, but I need to make the quick stop with the kids at the local one - a simple two miles from our home.  It's always fun this time of year to see them returning giant branches to the nest sites.

Cashmere STP

mmmm... sewage

I had always had a hard time finding this spot until Ken Hemberry showed it to me back in January.  It was pretty busy today, as I found Mallards and Wood Ducks (91), along with three species of swallows:  Tree (92), Violet-green (93) and quite a few Northern Rough-winged (94).  It is supposed to be a good place to find shorebirds in migration, although of course the only ones there today were a couple of Killdeer.

Colockum Road

Apples above the Columbia - Colockum Road

 From Cashmere, I headed straight past Wenatchee and turned south, taking the road along the Columbia, and eventually up into the hills.  There are several species of sage-loving birds that are tough to find in Chelan.  Sagebrush Sparrows haven't even been found five times in the county, but I figured that Brewer's or Vesper Sparrows might be hanging about, or maybe even a rarer Sage Thrasher.   The Meadowlarks in the sage gave some weird buzzy calls that briefly had me thinking that they were Brewer's Sparrows, but I figured them out.  Moments after the disappointment, a Prairie Falcon (95) soared in and dropped into the sage to grab a meal.

Loggerhead Shrike

I was pretty excited to find a code three bird, and started to drive further up the road.  Shrike.  Shrike??  Shrike!   The gray and black bird perched on a bush grabbed my attention and I wheeled the car around.  I was missing Northern Shrike for the year, although it seemed like better habitat for Loggerhead, which was just starting to show up in the state.  Sure enough - Loggerhead Shrike (96).  It sang back and forth with my phone, and I was amazed at how pretty these fairly savage birds sound.  It perched for a few pictures and then disappeared into the distance.

Colockum Road...ish

Continuing up the road, I... You know, I'm not even sure if I stayed on Colockum.  It got a little hinky with the signage, and my bearings, so after rounding a few beautiful corners and picking up one more new year bird (Yellow-rumped warbler - 97), I called it a day and returned to Wenatchee.  This is a road I'd like to hit again, as people have had Boreal Owl up on Colockum Pass.  I'm curious about how close that is to the county line...

The Wenatchee Waterfront

Two!  Whoa...

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Making up names for this stretch of three contiguous "parks" has made me weary, so I'll stick with this name for now. I walked the entire length of them and back - something approaching three hours, and came up with a bird list that was very different from what I expected!  I had hoped for gulls, and finally saw two gulls!  It was just a pair of Ring-billed Gulls, which doubled my previous high count of one Ring-billed Gull in the county this year, but still... wow. (California were seen a day or two later).  I also found a lot of Horned Grebes in various states of plumage (Eared were found a day or two earlier), and a Greater White-fronted Goose that is somehow still hanging around (Snow was found a few days later).

Osprey and Osprey food

An Osprey carrying a pretty large fish was one highlight of the walk, as well as two new year birds:  Cliff Swallow (98) and a long-awaited and very unexpected Red Crossbill (99).  American Wigeon were still plentiful, but it would seem that the Eurasian that was seen early in the year has long departed. The other species of note was Yellow-rumped Warbler, as there were a ton of them throughout the park, especially when I got to the campground for the state park. 

Evening and 100

Birder notes and birder food

Okay, it was late afternoon, but I was winding down, after having stayed up much of the night before.  I stopped at Chateau Faire le Pont just off of highway 2, because of course, red wine would help me decide which way to proceed.  In the end, I got a room at the Economy Inn, showered (ahhhh) and zipped back out. I tried for a Peregrine Falcon on Highway 97, but couldn't locate it this time - hopefully they nest and can be found in the future.  The last bird of the day was on Swakane Canyon Road - a pair of Mourning Doves (100).

I was surprised to see the Public Market sign lit up a la Seattle  - Wenatchee at sunset

Before the sun was even set, I was sitting down in Wenatchee at McGlinn's Pub, enjoying good food and a pint of IPA before heading to a very comfortable bed in a dark hotel room where I slept early and hard.