A Century in Chelan - Saturday 5/28

Early birds

I had a few different goals as I woke up Saturday morning at my campsite near Blewett Pass.  I had hopes of finding Flammulated Owls and/or Common Poorwills on the forest road, but I also wanted to make it to a spot above Lake Wenatchee before sunrise.  All of this led to an early start.  One?  Two in the morning?   I'd like to say that I remembered, but it was a long day, and I'm already a couple days out from it.  I woke with three or four ideas on where to find either of my targets, and I started it with FR7324--800.

Drive... stop... listen... call... rinse... lather... repeat.  I think I wove some naps into the process, as well, but it was pretty quiet on that road, so I hit Highway 97 with a list of zero.  Old Blewett Pass... nothing.  Camas Meadows... and I got my first bird of the day sometime around 3 AM:  Great Horned Owl (-, 1).

I had to think this one over, and I apologize if it becomes cumbersome, but I am going to throw Yearlist and Daylist numbers in parentheses as I go.  I have had Great Horned Owls on every trip to Chelan this year, so it wasn't a new bird for the year, but it was a new one for the day.   It was a pretty big day of birds, so I'll tally those too.

As I got out of the car, a flycatcher let out a gravelly call and went silent, so there wasn't a way to figure out if it was a Dusky or a Hammond's.  I figured I'd have plenty of both during the day, so I let it go.

Eagle Creek Road

Yellow-breasted Chat - not from Eagle Creek Road.

Yowzah.  This spot had so many birds, it was nearly overwhelming.  I came for some birds that I didn't end up finding, but had a surprise bird, and the sheer diversity was just crazy.  I got onto this road, just north of Leavenworth off of Chumstick Highway, at about 4-4:30 AM.  The first birds were a pair of Great Horned Owls calling (the fella on bass, the lady on baritone), and a Flammulated Owl (123, 2) calling on tenor just above them.

I had a fair number of birds that were not new for the year, but were for the day: California Quail, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Western Wood-Pewee, Cassin's Vireo, Violet-green Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Nashville Warbler, MacGillivray's Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler,  Chipping Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, American Goldfinch, Cassin's Finch and Evening Grosbeak.  All calling in the morning chorus, and most all of them before it was light as I continued owling up the road.  In addition to those 24 birds, I got a pair of Barred Owls (124, 27) calling from across the creek.

New for the year were Hammond's and Dusky Flycatchers, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Gray Catbird, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Lazuli Bunting.  Eleven new birds to bring me to 135 for the year and 38 for the morning.

I've described before in these blogs that I'm a fairly good ear birder, and fairly lacking at times with some of the field marks that separate some birds from each other.  I'd still say that this morning stretched my ability to recognize songs.  To have been absent from the East side for a month and a half and then to show up with all of these new birds singing, some of them in slightly different songs than on the West side, it was a bit overwhelming at times!  I have a number of birds which I see as being close but generally distinguishable by song:

Chipping Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco take some thought, and when the songs get close to each other (a Junco making an insect-like call, or a Chipper singing a little shorter rather than a long drawn-out call) aren't something I'd call without seeing the bird.  Yellow warbler can make me think of Wilson's if it gets a little staccato.  Dusky and Hammond's Flycatchers have very similar groups of notes that they'll sing, but Hammond's drops in a single note "Peek!" while Dusky has its "Deehic" that make them separable.  Cassin's Vireo and Red-eyed Vireo are also ones I have to relearn each year;  House Wren takes me a minute because it registers as a wren, but all of the other ones run through my head first.  Lazuli Bunting makes me think of a sassy Goldfinch, but again leaves me sitting there confused for a minute before I realize what is singing.

All of this is going  off in my head at once!  As I casually mention that I've added 37 birds by sound, I didn't want to leave the impression that it wasn't a struggle with some of them, and in some cases, the birds were calling over each other.  Like I said, Yowzah!

The American Redstart has a song that I had listened to in the car on the way over.  It's a lot like Yellow Warbler, but a bit thinner, a little more strident - nothing lazy about the song, and not one that is easy to ignore.  I recorded that one to make sure it was fitting the bill, and was a little sad that this one was not coming up for a visit.  As I look back, I realize that I was doing nearly no pishing to bring the birds up closer - maybe just from being overwhelmed at the time - they all seemed very busy singing and it just felt like it shouldn't be interrupted just to bring a bird up to be seen in the half light of 4:45 AM.

On the way to White River - a prescribed burn!

I had a few more birds as it became light - Mallards (-, 39), Tree Swallow (-, 40),  and Red-winged Blackbird (-, 41) all near a marsh where I'd been hoping for Virginia Rail and Sora.  Neither called back, which surprised me at this hour, but I know they have both been found here several times this year.  I left the road with my head spinning.

Teaching high school science, this fit right in with the fire ecology unit to end the year

 

Prescribed Burn - Chumstick Highway

White River Bridge

I was advised that this bridge - north of Lake Wenatchee - could be quite birdy, especially with some species that might be tough to find elsewhere.  As I drove up Chumstick Highway, I picked up Eurasian Collared-Dove (-, 42), Turkey Vulture (-, 43), Northern Rough-winged Swallow (-,44) and House Sparrows (-, 45).  The highway took me past the little town of Plain, and up to Little Wenatchee River Road.  I took it probably less than a mile to a gated portion and walked it from there.

This was a nice little area, and I got Townsend's Warblers (136, 46) fairly early on, followed pretty quickly by Black-throated Gray Warblers (137, 47).  The latter is a code 4 in the county, but there do seem to be a good handful of places to look for them, and it wouldn't surprise me if they slipped up into the threes (birds seen anually but not very common) eventually.  Wilson's Warblers (138, 48) were also heard, along with MacGillivray's, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and Nashville.  It was an awesome little stretch for them!  Apparently Orange-crowned was found here during the same week, which would have made for a nine warbler morning!

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Actually... it was a nine warbler morning.  I returned back over the bridge and stopped to survey the marsh just on the other side.  Common Yellowthroat (139, 49) was warbler number nine, and it came with a whole mess of other birds:  Barn Swallow (140, 50), Yellow-headed Blackbird (141, 51), Wilson's Snipe (142, 52), Sora (143, 53), Virginia Rail (-, 54), Ruffed Grouse (-, 55), Pygmy Nuthatch (-, 56), Marsh Wren (-, 57), Golden-crowned Kinglet (-, 58), and Common Raven (-, 59)  made the yearlist and daylist grow quite a bit in a short bit of time! 

"Fifty birds before breakfast"

Old Mill Cafe in Plain

My late friend Pete Fahey would always joke that we had to tally fifty birds before breakfast.  It was always done with an eyeroll, as it never took too long in New Jersey during migration to earn that meal.   We never ever hit 50 species before breakfast together, but I definitely was thinking of him as I rolled into the Old Mill Cafe a little before nine.  His Chelan list was pretty poor, as most people's seem to be.  It's way too easy to just try to pick up a bird or two in Chelan on the way to somewhere "better", but it seemed to have a pretty amazing mix of birds on this Saturday morning!

The Old Mill Cafe is under new ownership, by the way.  I had never sat down for a meal before, so I can't say if it's gotten better or worse, but the skillet I ordered was pretty good!  The order did get botched (they let you build your own skillet like you would with a pizza per topping).  I got someone else's broccoli and onions instead of sausage and mushrooms.  They were very sweet about offering to cook up a new one for free, but it was pretty good, and I'd already wolfed it down before it even became a discussion.  I... may have brought instant coffee packets to make the coffee a little less transparent, but the food and service were pretty good all in all.

Fish Lake

I keep seeing the best reports from this lake!  It was a good stop, but the lake was pretty busy on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  As I rolled up the road towards the cove, I saw (Dark-eyed Junco) and heard (Olive-sided Flycatcher the 60th and 61st species of the day, with the Flycatcher making it 144 for the year.  In the parking area, I laughed as I realized the American Crow flying by was the first for the day (-, 62).

Fish Lake General Store - Osprey in the distance

There... are fish in the lake.  I saw some jump, but the number of people fishing from the dock and the water, together with the number of Osprey (I counted six of them - 63rd species for the day), there's no way there weren't one or two fish in there.  As I watched the Osprey circling, I got a nice surprise as a Peregrine Falcon (145, 64) flew right through the hovering birds. I knew of a couple places to check for nests, so it was nice to have this code 3 bird find me!

Yellow Warbler

Back in the parking lot, a flock of Cedar Waxwings (146, 65) played through the trees lining the campgrounds.  I slipped up close and found that it was pretty easy to get good looks at the Yellow Warblers that I'd been hearing all day.  I didn't try to rent a pontoon boat, but apparently that's the way to go for birding on the lake.  This meant that I wouldn't be able to make an earnest search of the marsh on the west end of the lake for Cinnamon Teal, Wilson's Phalarope or Eared Grebe.  All three had been seen during May on the lake, the latter seen in breeding plumage during the Leavenworth Spring Bird Festival.  A Great Blue Heron (-, 66) was the last new day bird at Fish Lake before I headed back towards Lake Wenatchee.

Kahler Glen

Nason Creek

I made my next stop at Kahler Glen.  This is a resort with golf, skiing, and horseback riding (saw some on the trails I walked).  I had a chance to visit a private residence from someone I'd contacted before the trip.  My target was Band-tailed Pigeon, and I was able to find one (147, 67) - another code 3 bird that I was happy to get this easily after just a 15-20 minute wait at someone's feeder.  The feeders also brought in a large number of Steller's Jays (-, 68), and Brown-headed Cowbirds (-, 69), as well as my first Calliope Hummingbird of the year (148, 70).

Black-backed Woodpeckers here - just not today

I moved the car to a gravel lot across from the driving range and followed a path down towards Nason Creek.  The creek itself had Spotted Sandpiper (149, 71) and Belted Kingfisher (-, 72).  Western Wood Pewees were calling from the trail, and I tried to snap a picture or two of them.  The main reason for heading here was a clump of trees which had been... denuded (teehee).  The bark had been pulled back and was apparently being visited at times by Black-backed Woodpeckers.  They do find things to eat when there haven't been fires!  None showed up for me today, so I moved on to Tumwater Campground, leaving the Lake Wenatchee loop for the day.

Tumwater Campground

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

The park itself was closed, but I wasn't the only person walking the trails - a handful of mushroom foragers quietly poked around the site as I listened for birds.  The first and easiest was a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, by 150th bird for the year.  It came close enough to get a pic with my phone, and it felt a little like home having this common west side bird hopping around in the evergreens.  It took a longer walk to get to a tree that had a Red-eyed Vireo (151, 74) hidden and singing in its upper branches.  

Cedar Waxwings, Western Wood-Pewee, Yellow, Nashville and McGillivray's Warbler were all present, as well as some Black-headed Grosbeaks, Western Tanagers and Cassin's Vireos.  Very birdy spot!  Oh!  Almost forgot another new bird for the day, Pileated Woodpecker (-, 75), drumming away at the top of a snag.  Incidentally, the day list is literally coming to me as I go... it will be interesting to see which ones I miss by the end of this.  I'll add them in at the end!

Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort

White-headed Woodpecker

I had a few targets here, and one shall remain a puzzle for the moment.  The first though - White-headed Woodpecker (152, 76), couldn't have made it any easier!  The drumming led me right to the bird, and it stayed in plain view as I snapped a few pictures with my phone.  This is the place to find these birds - they are often tracked by the employees.  I also found a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches nesting in one of the cabins (-, 77), and a few Pacific-slope Flycatchers calling loudly near the guest cabins (153, 78).


Anna's Hummingbird has been reported several times for the Sleeping Lady, and... there's nearly no way it could be as regular as it is without a feeder, but I asked around and none of the employees were aware of any hummingbird feeders.  May just have been asking the wrong ones, but I kept up my walk for a bit and just couldn't find them.  If you know where they keep their feeders, do let me know!

White-breasted Nuthatch

I went up the road along Icicle Creek for a while, stopping periodically for Harlequin Duck without success.  I may just not have gone far enough, as they were reported later in the week!  This is a code three bird that regularly breeds in Chelan County and can be found on turbulent mountain rivers.  I added Common Merganser to the day list (-, 79) and returned to town, where I added House Finch (-, 80).

Just after finding the House Finch, I passed a home with a couple of hummingbird feeders sitting outside.  The owner was out mowing the lawn, so I pulled over and rolled down the window to talk birds.  I asked him about the hummingbirds, and his first comment was about "the red sonofabitches" arriving and chasing away the ones he had through the winter.  So there's a start, anyway!  He probably had Anna's at his feeders, and it sounded from his conversation like he still had them off and on, but their time at the feeder was limited by the Rufous hummingbird that arrived in the spring.

Cashmere STP

My next stop was Cashmere, where I had my fingers crossed for a Cinnamon or Blue-winged Teal.  These birds seem to come through in April and May in some decent numbers, and then kind of evaporate!   As I got my first looks at the water, I found a Wood Duck (-, 81) female with a handful of babies in tow.  The ducks did as they always seem to do - two by two hustling off to the far end of the water.  It's not all that big, so it felt okay to say there weren't any Cinnamon Teals floating around, but I went ahead and started walking the dike to see.

Wilson's Phalarope - Cashmere STP

New for the day was a Pied-billed Grebe (-, 82), and then I spied a tiny bird mixed in with the ducks.  Phalarope!   I assumed at first that it was Wilson's, although looking at the bar charts, Red-necked Phalaropes are still migrating through in late May.  The pictures were clear enough to show it was a Wilson's (154, 83).  It eventually flew back around the corner and out of sight, so I made my way around to the opposite side of the STP, where a couple was investigating a tree pretty carefully.

Bullock's Oriole Female

Bullock's Oriole (155, 84) - a male and a female had made a nest in the trees lining the STP, and gave me my first listen to oriole chatter for the year.  We exchanged notes on the day, and I let them know about the phalarope down around the corner before continuing down Highway 2. (Doh!  Just figured out birds I had missed in the tallyl - Bald Eagle at Fish Lake (-, 85), Pine Siskin on Little Wenatchee River Road (-, 86), and Hermit Thrush on that same road (-, 87).



Colockum Road

Note how the male Bullock's Oriole blends in with his surroundings :D

It had been a month and a half since I'd visited here in April, so I drove through Wenatchee (picking up 88 - Rock Pigeon), and down Colockum Road out of town.  It was amazing how many new day birds I got just by moving on to different habitat:  Red-tailed Hawk, Chukar, Black-billed Magpie, American Kestrel, and Western Meadowlark were among the early ones, taking the day to 93.

Western and Eastern Kingbird - Colockum Road

Early on I also had some Western Kingbirds (156, 94), and songs that I thought might be Lark Sparrows.  I listened to recordings and was feeling pretty comfortable, although this is *not* one that I get to hear very often, so I was happy when I found one perched and singing the same song in the sage. (157, 95)

Lark Sparrow - Colockum Road

Continuing along the sage, I found Bank Swallows (158, 96), Say's Phoebe (-, 97) and once I got down Trapsacan Road, some Brewer's Blackbirds (-, 98) and European Starlings! (-, 99).  I had it in my head that Black-throated Sparrow and Sage Thrasher were possibilities out here, but it didn't pan out.  I reached the end of the road.. well... then end of what would have been drivable for me, and returned to Colockum.  Taking that a bit further brought me to some riparian areas where I finally added my first Eastern Kingbird of the year (159, 100).

I had made it to about three in the afternoon and felt it was time to support the local economy, so it was back to Wenatchee for beer and good food.  I sat down at McGlinn's - a place I'd visited back in April - and tried to figure out what had happened!

Tiiiiiireddddd

I'd been up since... okay that's a hard number to nail down, with the breaks I took in the owling, but I had been up a long time, and had that sleepiness that comes from having seen a lot of birds.  I made one last stop for the evening - down at Walla Walla Point Park (Canada Goose - 101 for the day), then to Confluence.  As I was driving to Confluence, I caught a bird flying overhead, and it seemed to be a California Gull (160, 102).  I pulled over and watched it as it flew West.  I figured it would circle back toward the Columbia, but it got smaller and smaller in my binoculars.  It then was joined by a few more similar gulls, and then by a half-dozen or so smaller gulls right along side them  - some Ring-billed Gulls to make it 103 species for the day.   I'm very curious about where they might roost!

Walla Walla Point Park

I needed to roost.   It was only late afternoon, but hotels were all booked up for Memorial Day weekend, and the campgrounds I had passed were all pretty full, so I went to the place that always welcomes people sleeping in their RV's or cars - the parking lot of the Super Wal-Mart.   Who knows if anyone passed my car as I slept, but I dropped pretty hard despite the sunlight of the late afternoon.