1) Went on a trip
2) Took pictures
3) Moved pictures from my phone to my laptop
4) Laptop problems
5) Pictures gone
I wanted to open up with that! The October blanket trip really was a lot of fun, and we had some beautiful views, but sadly some really, really good views are gone and "only" in my memory and the memories of those who came along. I'm typing it up and may come across some pictures from my camera card and from other trip participants to add in here, but there won't be quite as many as usual!
Funny that I heard a song recently that I absolutely love and had not heard in a long time. The lyrics are not a bad reminder:
I'm writing you to catch you up on places I've been
You held this letter; Probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it.
Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way with words.
Today, skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliché
And strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
Are next to mountains anyway.
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
It brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
Just no more 3x5's
Guess you had to be there
Guess you had to be with me
-John Mayer "3x5's"
And maybe it's against the whole premise of the blog to say it, but... if you want to really *know* what it's like out there in Chelan, you have to go. The avalanches, the glaciers, the sunrises and sunsets, the eerie quiet or the constant, ever constant noise of the rivers carrying last year's snow towards the Columbia, the glorious stars, the smiles of the people at the fruit stand (smiles through ragged teeth, but made perfect as they talk about apricots), the desolate sage, the blue of Lake Chelan and how beautiful it is to see it peeking out from a distance... stop looking at my pictures! I mean... yes, do look at them, but stop *just* looking at them and go see this beautiful place, and hear it, and taste it, and smell it.
Incidentally, and speaking of smell, I failed to mention in the September trip notes that I found the spot. There is a spot (obviously) that the candle companies use to calibrate the smells for certain candles with words like "evergreen" or "forest" so that they can generate optimal bliss. Totally stumbled onto it on the Clara Lake Trail, and forgot to mention it. Another reason to go - they haven't yet found a way to transmit smells digitally.
Blanket trips
I don't know if I invented the idea of this for a field trip, but it's entirely possible. Field trips are great opportunities to go to good spots and search for birds, but there is rarely time to get to all of the places all of those good birds might be hiding. During migration, there is the added excitement and possibility that some unassuming puddle might hold a rare bird that got lost on the way south and forgot to check the field trip itineraries to ensure people might find it.
With a blanket trip, the plan is to fan out across a larger area in three cars and give a larger number of places a careful look. In Chelan County, Wenatchee is the obvious vertex for this fanning, and we decided to dub these three halves of the trip "The Leavenworth trip", "The Wenatchee trip" and "The Chelan trip". These were going to be led by Dan Stephens, myself, and Kevin Black respectively, so Kevin and I ran up early on Saturday to scout the Columbia and Chelan.
Saturday morning
Kevin and I got an early-ish start from my house after he stayed Friday night. This was fresh off of the presidential debates, and we had a good discussion running from Trump to Clinton to Bernie. I drove, and tried to get him some sleep, but we really do enjoy each other's company, so it's hard not to find a next conversation to start on long trips like that.
We made our first birding stop - an obligatory stop at the Cashmere STP. It's migration... shorebirds go there... but this just wasn't the year for this great spot. The rain had come too late to do us any good. As we decided to pack up, we got a call from Laurie Ness and Patrick Paulsen, birders from the Tri-cities who were staying in Wenatchee and would be joining us on the trip. Laurie would be with us for the morning as we birded up the Columbia, and Patrick would join us later when we began the trip up to Chelan Ridge.
Birding the Columbia
I feel like I've failed here to accurately document all of the productive pull-offs between Wenatchee and Chelan, but I'll try to step through some of those places here. The images of maps and any other street view images are from Google Maps, although I'll also caption them as such. Hopefully it helps in navigating/anticipating turns and figuring out where to park your car so that you don't drive like a (&%$@#! birder as you head up 97 trying to find good birds coming through.
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| Rocky Reach Dam - pull-outs at top and bottom |
From the parking area, we found that it was a long look down to the river, but we were able to scope some of the usual suspects. After a year, I haven't come to believe that any spot on the Columbia is a "good spot" for Horned Grebe, Common Loon, Western Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Common Merganser, Canada Goose or American Wigeon. We saw many of those species at many of the stops. Closer to November would mean adding Bufflehead and Scaup to that list, as well as Common Goldeneye. The same was true at this spot, so we drove to the North end of the dam where there is a pull-off.
From here we got pretty excited as a group of 9 birds circled the waters north of the dam - we caught white facial markings in binoculars and scopes, and even got some pictures! Looking them over, we were puzzled, and going back and forth between Surf Scoter and Harlequin Ducks. They flew up and over the dam to the south, so we returned to the parking area, hoping to figure out these birds. Ruth Richards and Jay Adams, birders from Island County, had spent the night in Chelan and were able to come down to help us try to relocate the birds. No luck!
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| The Scouting Crew - photo from Kevin Black |
It was tempting to head to the visitor center for the dam itself, but they are pretty tight on security there. There are parts of the dam where they don't want pictures taken, and... friends and neighbors... we had a surfeit of optics loaded up in those cars. It's an interesting range of reactions that people have to situations like this. I run into this at some Boeing locations and will usually seek out security in advance, present my optics for inspection and let them decide from there. Some people like to apologize later rather than ask first, or just avoid the whole thing altogether. Needless to say we did not get a chance to see those birds again (although the images showed that they were Surf Scoters.
The southern stop for Rocky Reach - it's worth pointing out - is a spot where I have had Canyon and Rock Wren (both were heard that day) and even Say's Phoebe, right from the road.
The next stop up the road was north of mile marker 211. If you're coming from the north, look for the 211 marker, then turn around and look for the following view/turnoff:
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| North of MP 211 on Hwy 97. Image courtesy of Google Maps |
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| Entiat River Mouth - Image from Google Maps |
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| Entiat City Park, including Will Risk |
Here you can see Will Risk Park - commonly cited as a hotspot on eBird and on birding listservs, but the other thing worth noting is that you may see signage for any of the three parks listed: Will Risk, Entiat City Park, and...Sil... well that other park down there. Any of these spots may provide good vantage points for the Columbia, although we didn't find much of interest there that day.
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| Next stop - North of Earthquake point - Image courtesy of Google Maps |
Another potential stop - north of Entiat, and past Earthquake point. Note that there are two pulloffs: there is one near the bottom that leads to the gravelly area and near the top, there is a wide pullout as well. This is across the river from Daroga, which is worth noting if anything interesting gets sighted from there.
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| Pullout just north of the road to Oklahoma Gulch |
The last real stop here is just past the road to Oklahoma Gulch. The pullout is visible here at right. Worth noting that Oklahoma Gulch is the only place all year that I was able to see Vesper Sparrows! It's an interesting road that is pretty drivable at least a little ways up. I wouldn't take it if it had mud or snow. Past this, you get the turnoffs for Navarre Coulee and other turns to take you to Lake Chelan, OR you can continue on Stayman Flats road along the river. That is not habitat that has ever been productive for me, although I'd always thought it might produce some good sparrows, a Northern Shrike, or... I'm not sure, but it hasn't been all that great, and the views of the water are hard to come by.
Lake Chelan
This was a lot of the morning, but definitely worth it, if only for the Surf Scoters that we found. The potential is there for birds to show up at any of those spots, and hopefully that helps in planning out your stops as you thoughtfully drive the highway towards Chelan. Lake Chelan was gorgeous as ever, and pretty full of ducks, coots and grebes for us. We stopped at Chelan at Lakeside Park, right in front of Lakeside Lodge and Suites (where I stayed earlier in the year, and have stayed with the family on several occasions!).
Some of the highlights there were a single Harlequin Duck - spied out in the middle of the Lake, American Pipits - maybe a dozen flying overhead, and not the last we saw that day - and one of many Red-necked Grebes we had seen that day. We stared long... very long... at a Horned Grebe with some interesting coloring, but never were able to turn it into an Eared Grebe. A few gulls demanded our attention, although all turned out to be Ring-billed or California. I've had a Glaucous-winged Gull here in the past, although none in the county this year.
Chelan Riverwalk Park
From here, continuing on Woodin, you head over the Chelan River. As soon as you're over the river, the first right (or the second... either one gets you there) will send you to parking for Chelan Riverwalk Park. This is a walk I did early in the year, and it's well worthwhile. There are some good feeders at a house along the way, and it leads you to the waters above the dam. I got a Northern Shoveler here earlier in the year, and I know it's often a spot where people find Barrow's Goldeneye, although I've never had them here. We made the walk along the length of the river to the end of the trail at the dam and back.
Into the Clouds
At this point, it was a bit patchy - clouds above, clear below - but we had intended to make a run at Chelan Ridge. Here... here folks is where you just really wouldn't want to be on a field trip with me. It was not looking like it would be clear at the top, the road, while drivable, was challenging in places. But... there was a chance that we could get to the top and find some clearing! If I was on my own, my optimism would keep me from hesitating at all (for better or worse).
We pulled the trigger and headed up the hill. We were slowed a couple times (trucks blocking the road, Flickers to stop and investigate, the occasional Rock of Great Size), but pressed on and arrived at the ridge. Early on, as we drove the ridge to the Hawkwatch Observatory, we stopped for a look at a recent burn. This... was one of the eeriest places I've been. To be there in October, with the trees singed away to the trunk, the earth scorched with only the occasional bit of greenery, mist rolling through, and silence surrounding us.
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| One of the few pictures I salvaged from the trip |
Dang I wanted to hear a Black-backed Woodpecker in there. Didn't happen. We moved on to the parking area for the observatory. Soup. Soup soup pea soup nothing. We arrived and were barely able to see the yurt where the observers were huddled up waiting for a break in the weather. My heart sank a little. After the last trip up, I'd realized the value in coming a little later (we arrived a little after lunch this day), and we were right around the perfect time of year to enjoy the little migratory push of Rough-legged Hawks, or maybe even pick up a Northern Goshawk.
But... unless those hawks were prepared to swim through pea soup and perch on m shoulder for identification, it wasn't going to be happening. We checked in with the group, giving me a chance to meet the two fellows that had been observing on my last trip, the Kentwood grad I missed on that trip, as well as some of the people from the Department of Fish and Wildlife who were part of the collaboration with Hawkwatch International.
The skies cleared above our heads and nowhere else, maybe for a minute, and I decided I was going to do the walk to the rocks. The rest of the group was game; None had been to the site before, and it was worth at least getting to know the geography of it. The occasional sprinkle made it feel like a bad idea now and then, but we pressed on, arriving at the top. We sat on the rocks, quiet, letting the wind brush by our faces and make them pink. Two minutes... five minutes... and quiet looks around followed by nods. Six people became four, then two...
Kevin and I chatted, and I can't remember the content, but "I'll catch up with you guys, I just need..." shrug... "I'll catch up."
Alone in the fog, I sat on top of the ridge, the fog giving and taking views of the ten feet around me. It was quiet enough to hear wordless confirmation in the soul, and tears fell in concert. The wind turned for a minute, and I rose to face south and the sun.
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In the moment when the cloud dropped, I stood with a view of my ten feet, and to the south a view so far, and nothing in between. God was close, and I felt lifted up. I felt at once protected and awed.
And I'm sorry, honestly sorry to those who came to read about birds and feel like they've stepped into something else. I had no plans to take you here, but things don't always Go As Planned.
The fog returned, closing the world to my ten feet once more, and I took the path down the rocks to the trail once more, joining the others and heading back towards the cars.
Antoine Creek Road
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| On the way down from Chelan Ridge: Photo Kevin Black |
Chelan
We stumbled back into Chelan, made a quick and not all that productive stop at Wapato Lake, and then made our plans for dinner. Kevin and I couldn't find a seat at Tin Lilly, where we'd been before (busy weekend with Fall Crush binging people into town for wineries - to the south, it was Octoberfest that brought them to Leavenworth). So we found Stormy Mountain Brewing Company as a spot for good food and beer. We paid up, our waitress taking the bill away on roller skates, checked in at the Apple Inn, and crashed at the end of a good day of scouting.
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