Late July trip - pulling a few more birds out of the doldrums (Part 1)

The doldrums

The Columbia River - cooling people off in the heat of summer

Birds come roaring in during April-June with their hormones on full tilt, and they spend the time singing, building nests, and making more little birdies *winkwink*.  July and August roll around, and it starts to get pretty slow!  The heat in Eastern Washington especially shuts the hormones down, to my understanding. Nonetheless, I knew that the county had some birds waiting for me, including some good sightings during early July (Forster's and Caspian Terns, Ash-throated Flycatcher and Western... I mean California Scrub-Jay, American Three-toed, Lewis' and Black-backed Woodpecker just to name a few).  I knew it would be a tough go, but that with some work, I could add some important birds to the year list. I left home after a shift with my son at Northwest Harvest on a Saturday.

Cashmere STP

My first stop was to the Cashmere STP, simply because it's a good spot for shorebirds.  The only flaw in that plan was that Chelan had received so little rain in the month or so prior - there was almost no mud to speak of.  I was able to find a few Killdeer and a Spotted Sandpiper, but this was otherwise the epitome of the doldrums.  I went back to my hot car, and made the short drive down to Wenatchee.

Walla Walla Point to Wenatchee Confluence

Late July is just early enough that I was hopeful about finding some shorebirds poking around on the Wenatchee Waterfront, or maybe some terns, but none of the above were found as I walked the now-familiar path from the South end to the North and back again.  Many of the late-arrivers were quite vocal, including Cedar Waxwings, and especially Eastern Kingbirds.  There were also gulls in greater numbers than I'd seen all year.  No more working hard to hunt down a California Gull; Nearly a dozen were waddling around accepting bread from park-goers, and floating in the Columbia. 

Eastern Kingbird

This area is one of the few where shorebirds do appear in the county - I could see the habitat at Walla Walla Point, with the little sheltered inlet/pond where ducks seemed so happy during most of the year.  The mouth of the Wenatchee is the other place, especially if water levels are a little lower, and I do have a record of Greater Yellowlegs from that stretch several years ago.

Nonetheless, the shorebirds continued to demonstrate a lack of interest in anything Chelan County had to offer that day, so my next stop was Red Robin for dinner.

Horse Lake Preserve

Horse Lake Preserve

Looking for Barn Owls

This is one of those locations that has a CDLT tagged onto it on ebird, and I realize now that it stands for Chelan-Douglas Land Trust.  I had hoped to join a survey team for the CDLT earlier in the week to do one of their walking/driving protocols through Horse Lake, but the timing just wasn't going to work out.  They had on previous visits found Ash-thoated Flycatcher and even some Barn Owls, so I was excited to poke around in this area I'd only visited once.

Some cars passed me on the way down as I made my way up, but I was otherwise alone as I parked at the end of the rocky road and walked the trail.  With the sun near setting, and a light breeze, it was absolutely beautiful, and pleasant to walk in.  There were bugs to be sure, but only in the form of legions of grasshoppers which scattered with every step I took down the trail. 

Copses of trees here and there added diversity

I passed a Barn, and thought to call for Barn Owl.   I got a call from the Barn, but nothing that sounded too much like a Barn Owl.  I repeated, recorded, and waited in hopes that the culprit would come flying out of the barn to hunt for the evening, but it remained where it was.  Listening later, I figured out that this was likely a juvenile Great Horned Owl, and I had a good laugh about just how many places I've found them.  Easy easy owl to find in Chelan!

I found nothing else but scenery, and the sun was on its way down, so I returned to Wenatchee.  Just before returning to normal roads, I heard a familiar sound out of my open window and pulled over.  Common Nighthawks were circling and hawking insects above me, and as it turned out, were joined by some smaller Violet-green Swallows, and my 178th bird for the year list - Vaux's Swifts.

Sunset on the hills around Wenatchee

It's an interesting predicament - heading over with a tent in the car, but always birding until fairly late.  I drove up the highway to Chelan, and repeated a plan I've carried out before, curling up in the back of my car in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot and drifting off to sleep.