Birding with the Boys - 7/1

A tradition of sorts

I've taken my son and nephew along once a year on a hiking and/or camping and/and birding trip for three straight summers now.  This year, we made it a nice hike near Stevens Pass, taking the trail from the Smithbrook Trailhead, up to the Pacific Crest Trail, down to Lake Valhalla, and up to Mount McCausland.

The annual XY trip

Birding with people that aren't all that interested in birds?  Going on a hike in the mountains is perfect.  There won't be too too many birds, and the ones you do find will often be more interesting!  The road to Smithbrook Trail was clear all the way through, and I made several stops for birds that were missing from my yearlist, but had been seen here or nearby:  Red-breasted Sapsucker, Brown Creeper, Sooty Grouse and Clark's Nutcracker were all ones I was keeping an ear out for.  The one I got was an Orange-Crowned Warbler (176 for the year in Chelan). 

With all of the songs I'd heard on my big day in May, I was shocked not to have heard this warbler, which has a fun little downslurred song.  Even at home in King County, though, I know they usually show up in migration, and then are pretty picky about habitat, sometimes heading to higher elevations as this guy did.  With some patience, I finally saw a little yellow ball pop up and drop back down into the vegetation.  No field marks, really, but then again Orange-crowned Warblers have nearly none to speak of!

The view during most of the lower part of the hike

Once out of the car, we were swarmed by mosquitos.  There were stretches of the day where this was not the case, but I don't remember them all that well, so we will assume that a high-pitched buzz was a constant part of the soundtrack as we walked.  It was not the only part of the soundtrack, however, as we started to climb.  Hermit and Varied Thrushes (my favorite bird) sang to us as we climbed through switchbacks that would approach large meadowed slopes, then angle away and back again.  The mix of habitat meant a nice mix of warblers - MacGillivray's, Nashville, Wilson's, Townsend's (many of these, with nice views), and even a Black-throated Gray! 

Budding botanist taking pictures of flowers

At one point, a new song came from the meadows on the other side of the wall of trees guarding the switchback.  It was one I was ready for, although I may have heard the song only once since I started birding:  Lincoln's Sparrow! (177).  These birds are ones I am used to finding in the lowlands of Puget Sound during the winter, and even then, they tend to be a little skulky and quiet.  Having them in their breeding habitat and singing was a nice treat, although not getting to see these beautiful sparrows was tough.

Higher up, we occasionally had finches passing overhead - only Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeaks, although I did get some crossbill sounds that were either an unfamiliar type (Ponderosa Pine??) or White-winged, or... other confusion species which I just couldn't conjure up at the time, so I had to just let them go as they flew out of earshot.

I think we decided Helvellas Vespertina - Western Fluted Elfin Saddle

As we reached the Pacific Crest Trail, the trail leveled out, and the climb prior to this point was not all that difficult.  This led us along more mixed habitat with some of the same birds mentioned above, but also with quite a few hummingbirds.  Rufous was the most common, and I could identify them by sound, but the others... Likely Calliope, but possibly Black-chinned??... couldn't really be identified.

My nephew, about to enter college, and my son, about to enter high school, talked nearly non-stop, with much high school veteran advice passed along.  I had tried to find a way to get a second car waiting at Stevens Pass so that we could do the through hike, as I could imagine the two of them covering an awful lot of miles without hardly noticing.  For our purposes, taking the side-trail down to Lake Valhalla was the backup plan we pursued. 

Lake Valhalla from the trail to Mount McCausland

Not a lot of snow to cross, but patches here and there

Now... we are talking about a tarn with an epic name, and crystal clear cool water on the first day of July after 4 miles of hiking.  I'd love to tell you that we slipped off the shoes and socks and spent some time dangling the feet in the water (which is exactly what we did on our hike the previous year in Mason County!), but as I sat and watched my son sprinting in a circle, slapping his shirt to kill the bloodsuckers landing on him, I thought... ya know... we don't really need to be here too much longer.

We got our pictures and returned to the PCT.  Along the way we passed other hikers that had done the side trail up to Mount McCausland.  It sounded manageable and worthwhile, so we did tackle that before heading back to the car.  This trail was a bit steep, and the bugs really didn't cool down.  It was nice to hear a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet along the way!  They breed at high altitudes and it had been a while since I'd heard their complex song.

We were close to turning it back, but I needed to finish this hike.  We were so close to being able to see Glacier Peak from the top - a rare view of the massive, but well concealed peak - and I had to confirm with my son entering high school that I could essentially tackle any reasonable hike with him.  This felt reasonable, outside of the bugs!  We continued, and eventually found ourselves greeted by a singing Townsend's Solitaire, views of distant peaks, and views of nearby lakes down below us.  I made a mental note that we had also found our way to a county line, with Snohomish County running right up against Chelan County here.  It's always nice to take it right to the edge.

Glacier Peak from Mount McCausland

The walk down is always harder than the walk up for me, it seems.  The ankle starts to grow weary of balancing on uncertain footing, the toe gets sick of being jammed against the end of my shoe, and my knee almost always joins in on the conversation as well. Nonetheless, we made it back alive, and had some celebratory ice cream at Stevens Pass before heading back home.

FYI:  Hiking distance was a little over 8 miles.  Hiking time was about 5 hours.