Last Call!

November

This is supposed to be the final trip of the year, and I had a long list of possibilities for the last eight birds to get me to 200 for the year. I packed up some things at home Friday night... napped... woke up and decided to make a go of it.  I'd talked to a couple about borrowing a scope, an amenity I usually did without (unless I was with others who had brought one).  I swung by their Bothell apartment and then hit the highway.

In this case, the highway was Highway 2.  It had been a wet day, but the weather was improving, and I was hopeful that a night like this could turn up an owl.  "Owls????", you might rightfully wonder, "Haven't you seen enough, you greedy...".  Well, okay, this is kind of true.  Having had Spotted, Barred, Flammulated, Western Screech-, Northern Pygmy-, Great Horned, and Northern Saw-whet, it had really been an exceptional year for owls.  Barn would be for a morning, and most others were pretty unlikely (Short-eared, Long-eared, Great Gray, Burrowing, Snowy), which leaves...

Boreal Owl

I need to justify this seemingly optimistic decision to look for Boreal Owls in Chelan County.  May I first present the ladies and gentlemen of the jury with exhibit A:

EXHIBIT A

This is from Birdweb on line - the Seattle Audubon's site, and the images themselves are from Birds of Washington, a sizable tome by Mlodinow, Twiet and Wahl.   If these range maps are to be trusted, there is at least a larger area of potential habitat for Boreal Owls in Chelan (if not actual owls) than any county in the state.  I had thought of making a run for them if the time and circumstances allowed for it.  IN this case, I was zeroed in on the part of the purple range that extends in like a pair of serrated scissors, or maybe a snake head.  The lower part of this is mentioned in Exhibit B:

EXHIBIT B

Before my GPS decided to quit helping

David Beaudette holds the record for species seen in a year in Chelan County:  A gaudy 240 from back in 2002, when this post was added on Tweeters.  A read of the Tweeters archives for 2002 is pretty amazing, as you see some of the birds that David found.  This was the lead I was following as I slipped up the Chumstick Highway sometime after midnight, and turned onto Eagle Creek Road.

This road had been good for owls:  I've had Barred, Great Horned and Flammulated.  Others had added Northern Pygmy and Northern Saw-whet.   It was a nice evening, and the road was very drivable, so it was really... really a nice start.  I picked up a few Barred Owls early on, then thought it would be worth pushing forward to find the turns I had marked out on the map.

At one point, I found myself staring at the arrangement of the roads... then down at the map... then at my GPS (out of range - no information), then down at the map... then at the numbered Forest Road sign, riddled with bullets into almost complete illegibility.  I decided that straight ahead was a good idea.  I would know I'd gone too far if I hit a series of...

Switchbacks

Which should have been the part of the story where I nodded knowingly and turned the car around, but that story was preempted by...


Mud

Welp...

The story I was ready to tell

I felt the traction disappear underneath me, and eyeballed my options for turning around.  The option I chose led to a slow slide of the front end of my car towards the ditch.  Trying to go down hill... trying anything really... got it moving towards the ditch.  Friends and neighbors, that is the front wheel of a front wheel drive car, buried pretty soundly in mud.  The time is 1:30 AM, and I am on a fairly remote Forest Road.  I thought over my options and decided to get into the car and try to get some sleep before figuring out something in the morning.

1:45 AM

I don't know exactly how to evaluate luck, or the enormous portion that was dropped uncermoniously onto my plate that night, but before I had hit anything resembling REM sleep, I peeked through my lids and saw lights.  The lights were dancing back and forth through the trees on the road below me, and I got out quickly to investigate. Flashlights were obviously the source.  "Help!!!!  I'm stuck!!   Can you help me??"  I called down below and waited.  Silence, and I tried again, and got a voice in return.

The elk hunters down below, husband and wife, had come up the same road with a proper vehicle (a Ford truck, rather than a Ford Taurus), but towing a camping trailer behind them that had become stuck.   They took their time in carefully getting themselves unstuck, and I will say with complete honesty that it was actually a lovely wait, made more lovely by a few calls by a Western Screech-Owl.   They then came up to help me.

Helping me in this case first meant tying my car to their truck and simply dragging me out.  I... look, you read about "towing capacity" and shrug, unless you understand the 800 thousand situations where you actually need it.  The fact that a truck was able to pull me out of that mud while itself resting on a muddy road makes me question what I had even learned as a physics major in college.  It may be a natural response in these situations to offer money, and I did, and it is probably a natural response to decline that money.   We've all had these times in life where someone saves our bacon without giving it a second thought.  I now have a lot of paying forward to do (just don't count on me to literally pull you out of the mud.  I don't think the Taurus has any of that towing capacity stuff.)

Wenatchee

A cup of optimism for breakfast

The car was moving just fine, unless I approached 60 miles an hour, when it would start to shake a bit.  It was good enough to get me to Wenatchee, where I stopped in at a Denny's to get a meal and regroup. I was casually chatting with the waitress about my car woes, and she decided to call a friend.  By the time I had finished breakfast, he had arrived (this was maybe... 5:30 AM).

Long stare at the car... "That's not really the right car for those roads."

"Well, I know for those conditions, yeah, but I'd never hit stuff like that in my life."

"You're... from the West side, yeah?"

"Yup."

"Yup."

Long pause...

Wenatchee waking up

We went on like this for maybe 10 minutes and may have exchanged as many sentences.  Finding out that he only took cash became a bit of a deal-breaker.  I asked for ideas on shops in town, and I was told not to go to any of the Mexican shops "because they only put Band-aids on things," and he added an exculpatory "I'm not trying to be racist,"  which didn't feel all that convincing.

I took the car over to Anglers, which was not opening for a couple hours more.  I dropped my key through the slot, left a voice mail and strolled off towards the waterfront with scope, binoculars, and a backpack to carry a few books.

Wallorafluence Natural State Area Park

For one last run I started on the south end of the string of waterfront parks - Walla Walla Point - walking through darkness right into Horan Natural Area, where I watched and listened near large fields, hoping for a Barn Owl.

Horan Natural Area

Probably not a real picture

I looked well past Barn Owl O'clock, which is usually during astronomical twilight, I figure.  I have a fascination with twilight that has nothing to do with vampires.  I looked it up once because I'd seen the terms enough times:  Astronomical twilight is the time when it is not bright enough to really be able to see where you're walking, but the sky has still brightened enough to cause the stars to fade.  Civil twilight is when it is bright enough to see where you're walking, and lasts until the sun actually rises.

The sunrise that morning... I've really been lucky with weather over the course of the year, and it was pretty surreal, what the sky did that morning. In addition, the fall colors were even better than they had been during my October trip. 

I saw a sparrow on a wire, and caught both the red cap and a hint of a central breast spot.  American Tree Sparrow!  193 for the year, and a nice code 4 bird.  I strolled farther up the path and relocated the bird, which I shot through the magic of digiscoping.

American Tree Sparrow - Horan Natural Area

My big regret was not hearing the bird call enough to really have the note burned in the brain, but having the picture did highlight a field mark that I had not been aware of before - the bi-colored bill.

Wenatchee Confluence State Park

I continued into Wenatchee Confluence Park, using some of my last bits of phone life to call the car place.  As I reached the far end of the park, and was walking back towards the camping area, I heard something I had never properly heard in life - a singing White-throated Sparrow.  There's something about hearing the song clearly, and this bird was making itself heard from... jeez it must have been a quarter mile if it wasn't a mile.  "Five miles away... those are some pretty impressive ears!"  I was thinking to myself when I finally came upon the bird, which had all of the field marks of Ken Hemberry, including the phone that he'd used to call for White-throated Sparrow.  Needless to say, I decided not to count that one.

Ken and Debbie Sutherland have been helping me off and on during the year, and it was good to see Ken and share some sightings.  He went back to his car as I continued the walk back through Confluence towards Walla Walla Point Park, which I had not properly seen in daylight.

The phone died sometime around here, but my luck was reborn:  Red-breasted Merganser (194) and Bonaparte's Gull (195).  The Bonaparte's Gull represented the single remaining bird from a week where I held firm and did not chase.  After our blanket trip, someone returned to look for scoters, and a Long-tailed Duck was found (at Chelan Falls State Park).  Others looked for the Long-tailed Duck, and also found Red-throated and Pacific Loons (at Wells Dam).   Ken and Debbie made runs to see the loons, and found Northern Pintails and Bonaparte's Gulls at Walla Walla Point.  

So... If I'd missed my daughter's first basketball game of the year, would I have added some birds to my list.. yeah, but no thanks.  It pains some of the die-hard listers out there to see what seems like such poor planning, or worse, apathy, but these decisions revolve around careful planning, and planning around a few important birds in my life. 

I walked back, had a meal at Taco Time, checked in on the car, then decided to walk it to the Econo Lodge.  I got a room, and I slept.  Finally. 

4:00

I'm picking up my car and looking over the list of possibilities.  Too late to try for Black-backed.  Too little time with light to really try the Columbia.  I decided to head back out to Malaga and Colockum Road in hopes of a Northern Shrike, Rough-legged Hawk, or maybe even something more interesting like a Snow Bunting.  They'd been seen in Seattle, and BirdWeb puts their range map just barely into this area, so I figured it was worth keeping one more eye open for them.

196!

What kind of a jerk even includes a picture like that?  Apparently this kind of jerk.  The Northern Shrike is in there, however, and not too far from where I found Loggerhead Shrike back in May.  I got a nice listen to it as well, before it flew back into the sage.  I tried Colockum Road farther down, but came up empty on any other birds my mind could even think to look for, then returned to town grabbed a bite at Applebee's and crashed crashed crashed for the night.

The guiding thought as I went to bed?  I'd picked up four birds that day, why not four more?

Distant Rain from Colockum Road

 

October Blanket Trip - Sunday October 9th

Bright and early - always bright and early.  I had crashed awfully early with Kevin the night before (and probably snored, and he probably said nothing about it), and found myself up at midnight.  I graded papers until about two, and then returned to sleep.  Up at a reasonable hour (no alarm) and I left Kevin carless in Chelan.  He had the Christie's from the Seattle area, and Meredith Spencer from Bridgeport on their way to meet him at the hotel for their leg of the trip, while I was on my way to Wenatchee.

Confluence State Park

Man... one of these times I'm going to get to this park early, like... 1 AM, and I'll just sit and wait and have that Barn Owl greet me.  Today it was too late to make that a reality, but I have this Linus and the Great Pumpkin belief about it which has led to similar results each trip.  I pulled into Walla Walla Point Park and found a circle of cars with a bunch of weirdos standing around it sporting binoculars.  I knew I was in the right place.  Mary Frey (from my neck of the woods in South King County) and Dan Stephens from Cashmere were the final additions to our crew for the blanket trip.

We discussed plans for the day, and possibilities, then broke it up.  Mary drove Laurie, Patrick and I to Confluence, leaving her car.  Dan made his way towards Leavenworth with Jay and Ruth. 

The park was gorgeous.  I really do regret not having pictures.  I explained in my last post that my pictures were on my computer, but were lost recently, so I'm all text on this one!  Leaves were just starting to fall in earnest, and it was much clearer than the previous day.  We really gave this whole park a solid going over.  There were sparrows to inspect (White-crowned and Song in decent numbers, and a Gorgeous look at a Lincoln's sparrow just after crossing the bridge and turning into Horan), Yellow-rumped Warblers galore, numerous grebes, including Pied-billed, Western, Horned, and a couple Red-necked, which can be hard to find in the county at times, but apparently not this fall.  There were not many raptors during the walk, but a Northern Harrier flying along the river, and a Peregrine Falcon flying overhead were some very nice highlights.

Laurie and Mary caught a nice surprise with a Cassin's Vireo during a brief split.  Patrick and I found a Marsh Wren on the other half of the split around Horan.  After coming together, we came to a series of inlets and ponds, looking them over to inspect the teals we occasionally found.  The Green-winged Teals, aside from being smaller, eventually stood out for us because of the overall similarity between the head and body - both being a bit dark.

Then we came across a juvenile teal.  Oh dear.  We studied it for some time, and at all angles.  The bill did not seem shoveler-like... although that did not seem to be an important field mark here, as neither juvenile develops the longer bill that adult Cinnamon Teals do.  The bird had a dark bill, and a more distinct eye line than Cinnamon Teals appear to have.  It also had a warmer color on the breast, which points to Blue-winged (Cinnamon Teal juveniles are more bleached out on average), and the feathers were more distinctly patterned rather than muted/washed out.  All of those pointed to Blue-winged, so we felt comfortable calling it.  With all of the birds that were identified easily and/or quickly during the year, this was a nice one to puzzle through, and it was nice to have others along to play devil's advocate.  190 for the year!  (although... I didn't realize at the time that it was really 191, since we had actually seen Surf Scoters).

The trip ended with an extremely thorough look at about 120 American Wigeon.  We were not able to find a Eurasian in the mix, although I was giving both the males and females a good look.  We hung it up around 9 or 10 and made a run for Malaga.

Malaga...

...is apparently not only the name of a locality on the Columbia (fittingly on Malaga Road), but also a name connected with a mine.  As I was telling Laurie and Patrick that we were heading there, it caused some confusion!  We at least avoided the ultimate wrong turn (it's not all that easy to get turned around once you're on your way to East Wenatchee) and headed south on Malaga Road.  This is where I'd found Lark Sparrows, a Prairie Falcon and a Loggerhead Shrike back in June.  On this trip, I had hopes for a Rough-legged Hawk or a Northern Shrike, maybe even a Northern Pintail on one of the three lakes near Malaga.

We made our longest stop at Meadow Lake, and found something I'd only seen at the Wenatchee waterfront:  A Ring-necked Pheasant!  It was hard to pick out at first, as it perched on a tree over a little marsh across the road from Meadow Lake proper.  It looked a bit ridiculous! 

Too much time and not enough places to go... wait... switch that... reverse it.

We had an hour.  My inclination was to make a bee-line for Mission Ridge, where Black-backed Woodpecker and Brown Creeper had been seen on recent visits.  The collective wisdom was against me, however, and we instead drove to Mission Ridge, stopping here, stopping there.  It's how I usually bird when I'm less directed or new to a place, and although it's not how I would have done it left to my own devices, we still got about 20 minutes at the top to stroll and listen for any of the above and play for Northern Pygmy-Owl. 

Having completed our run of Wenatchee and the south end, we returned to Walla Walla Point Park to get the highlights of the day. 

Dan's trip to Leavenworth had yielded some nice Ponderosa Pine birds, including White-headed Woodpecker and Pygmy Nuthatch at the Sleeping Lady.   We reported our grebes, sparrows and teal.  Kevin told us at that point about the Scoter he had found at Will Risk Park in Entiat.  I still thought I needed a Surf Scoter, so I hopped in Kevin's Car after saying some goodbyes, and we made a run for it.

This was a nice find.  Scoters from the West side make their way over in the fall, possibly up the Columbia, rather than... over the mountains, yeah?  It was one of the surprises I was expecting, which made up for some of the others we didn't find.   We scoped and high fived and returned to the car, continuing to talk about the day, including the American White Pelicans he had seen up near Wells Dam.

???

See, back on a similar trip in Mason County, Kevin had nonchalantly announced that he had a Heermann's Gull in the scope. I assumed he was joking because it was a code 4 bird, and we joke about things like that.  He wasn't joking then, and he wasn't joking this time either (just very casual about the Pelicans, having seen plenty of them on the Columbia when he lived in the Tri-Cities).  We ran farther up the road - exactly the kind of chase this trip was supposed to allow for. 

County listing exists because of lines.  There's this place, and that place, and a line that separates them.  We showed up and found the pelicans squarely on the other side of the line - over in Douglas County.  We waited...  Scoped them and enjoyed the birds... and waited.  "Well, I mean... they must have been at least past middle when we got here, don't you think?"  Kevin was giving me an out if I wanted to take it, but... if we're working with lines, it would make as much sense to count the birds and ones up on the plateau in Mansfield.  

Kevin's a teetotaler, but I dragged us down the driveway we'd been using to scope the birds, all the way down to the winery whose sign sat on the freeway where we'd turned:  Rio Vista winery.  Bugs... so many bugs.   The awesome and scary thing about crushing a lot of grapes is that bugs show up in droves.  I went ahead and got a tasting anyway, although I did end up pulling a fruit fly off of my tongue at one point.  The wine was great, and it gave us just enough time.

Back at the top of the driveway, we saw that two of the pelicans had floated, swum, or been carried over to the Chelan side.  One more high five, and Kevin and I were heading home.  192 birds for the year, with plans for one more trip!   The field trip had done just what I'd hoped, giving people a chance to see some new parts of the county, and freeing them to find birds at the end of the day.  Better yet, I was able to finish my grading on the way back as Kevin took over the driving.

October Blanket Trip: Scouting

How this happened:

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.

Rocky Reach Dam - pull-outs at top and bottom

This was in part why we did the scouting trip - Kevin wanted to make sure that he knew what spots had good views and good birds. Our first pull off was at the large parking area south of Rocky Reach Dam.  There is a Railroad crossing sign - here as everywhere, there are tracks running between the road where you are, and the water that you want to see.  Trains are bigger than you.  Act accordingly.  That said, I have seen one single set of trains pass during the entire year of birding in Chelan.

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!

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:

North of MP 211 on Hwy 97.  Image courtesy of Google Maps

There are a couple of things to note here:  There's a nice pull off, and a clear view of the Columbia, of course.  I tried to also capture the power poles up and to the left.  This is where a Peregrine Falcon has regularly hung out for... I'm not sure how long.  I've always missed the darn thing, but Laurie spied it as she scanned the cliffs, and we all got to enjoy good views.  No unusual birds to report from the water itself, but... it's worth a stop if only for the falcon!

Entiat River Mouth - Image from Google Maps

Next stop!  The Entiat River Mouth.  Now... understand that we still didn't get anything amazing here, but I love this spot.  There is an obvious... erm... alluvial fan?  I think that's what you call all of the gunk that protrudes out from the river into the Columbia.  It is sometimes frequented by gulls, which were hard to come by for much of the year.  There is a wide shoulder on the right just as you start on Entiat Valley Road (which heads away from the Columbia along the Entiat River).  From there you can view the open water below for ducks, and I've found a Bald Eagle there on multiple stops. From across the road, there is enough room to set up a scope to view the Columbia itself.

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.

In this pic, I've got another good vantage point shown.  From Lakeshore Drive, accessed just south of the Shell Station in Town (pictured in the image) you can scope the River (which, incidentally, is called "Lake Entiat" for this whole stretch north of Rocky Reach Dam.  We didn't get any interesting water birds here, but between here and town itself, we caught sight of a Falcon working the fields  - never decided if it was a Merlin or a Peregrine, but both are worth looking for along the river!

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.

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.

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.

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

On the way down from Chelan Ridge:  Photo Kevin Black

We took the nicer road down, into Okanogan County and down to Antoine Creek Road.  The highlight here was a glorious sparrow patch, after returning into Chelan Coutny, but before hitting Apple Acres Road.  Dozens and dozens of White-crowned Sparrows and a handful of Golden-crowned gave us hopes of finding a White-throated or better somewhere in the mix.  There were a few good ear birders on the trip, and some folks from both sides of the mountains, so we got to discussing the different songs from Gambelii and Pugetensis White-crowned sparrows before deciding that it was worth moving along.



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. 

September Trip - Day two: 9/11

Wenatchee to Chelan

The turn off of Apple Acres Road to Antoine Creek

I made it another early one, driving up from Wenatchee through Chelan, then turning off at Apple Acres Road.  This is a neat road with a lot of mixed habitat.  A few years back, I made a trip through here to bring my life list up to 99 (!), picking up a nice mix of sparrows (Chipping, Brewer's, Lark), as well as Lazuli Bunting and Western Meadowlark.  I didn't really stop to bird it today, as the sun had already begun to rise, and I was excited to get a good day up on Chelan Ridge at the Hawkwatch Observatory.

Burns from Antoine Creek Road - streaks of shadows

Chelan Ridge

Now... I will be honest, this is one of those places that justify my obsession with maps.  The map has a line... but you don't really know about the road until you've been on it (it was quite driveable) A Birder's Guide to Washington has a mark for the observatory, but in my head, I really had a different picture.  Visitor's Center?  Some kind of paved veranda where people set up their scopes and watch as docents point out the birds coming by?  It was none of the above, but I loved having a chance to take the guesses and replace them with... a Place.

I drove the switchbacks, watching the little dot on my phone gps approach the road running along Chelan Ridge, and all signs seemed to indicate that I was going the right way.  As I said, it was quite drivable, and it was fun having a few birds get my attention before even making it to the top.  A flock of about 20 Mountain Bluebirds confused me for a good while until I heard others calling later in the day.  A Red-tailed Hawk and an accipter (sp?) hinted at the hawks I'd get to see at the top.

Tally board - Chelan Ridge

Accipiter (sp?)

Accipiters are a family of hawks including Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, and Northern Goshawks.  They are superficially pretty similar, and are variable enough (from juveniles to adults, males to females) in size and appearance to make identification tricky, especially when they aren't seen well.  Among other things, I was hopeful to come out of the trip with a better understanding of how to (and when not to) separate these species from each other in the field.  

Full disclaimer.  I learned so much while I was up on this trip.  I've forgotten... way too much of it.  This has always been a struggle for me - working out what bird I'm looking at when many field marks are in play (tail length, head size, bend of the wings, wings held horizontal, up or below horizontal, head color, terminal band, width of body and overall bulk, soaring or "buoyant" flight... There's a start).  That said, I want to head back up again and again to Chelan Ridge!

Chelan Ridge

Hmmmm

I arrived at the T in the road and the ridgeline road, taking a right towards the Hawkwatch.  Cooper Mountain is also on the way, and a short walk (wouldn't take the car up there, by the way) took me to a very nice view of the ridge and surrounding mountains.  Even there, I startled something that I could only identify as a hawk!  Continuing along the road past Cooper Mountain, I arrived at a parking area... and a yurt.

This was strange.  There were a handful of cars, but nobody to be seen in any direction.  I found a sign... "We know you are here.  Please wait.  We will come for you."  It was a paraphrase, but still a little creepy!  I waited and walked a little bit, trying to get some hot water going for coffee before realizing my lighter was out of fuel.  I peeked in the yurt - lots of water and snacks and a few chairs - and at the cages nearby - starlings and doves in cages.  (I later found out these were there as food for birds that they catch while they are banding them).

Apparently they weren't expecting visitors quite so early, so I made it up to the second parking area, and saw a sign for the trail to the observatory.  Towhees, bluebirds, yellow-rumped warblers and even Rock Wrens sang to me as I walked the 3/4 mile trail.  At one point I saw a figure standing on rocks in the distance, and figured I was on the right trail.  The numerous informational signs were also a good indication!  I read each as I walked, and eventually made it to a rocky outcrop where I startled two men with binoculars, bundled up heavily at the top. 

Wait... this can be.. a job????

mmmm... quantitative data...

TC and JD (I think I got the names right!) were the Hawkwatch staff up there tallying birds and recording other data while I was there, and it's hard to think of when I've been able to spend time with people that owned such a rich combination of knowledge, humor, and good spirit.  More than anything, they were excited to share their understanding of the birds coming through.  We were chatting away, and at one point, the binoculars went up "Here comes one."

I am a quiet observer when birds are making sounds, but here I was amazed.  The two of them, once the bird was in binoculars.  Stayed on it, silent as it came from the North, passed the ridge, and continued for what may have been a mile or more away.  "Cooper's?" TC finally offered, and they discussed the different field marks and what other birds they were considering.  Usually the calls were a little easier, but it was just a matter of waiting for the right angle with this one. 

I also noticed that, as birds came into sight, they identified them as migrants or "locals".  Asking about it, they have some birds that hunt in the area and have not left for southern climes yet.  Others will hunt in the mornings wherever they are while they wait for the wind to get right.  It was pushing towards the south when I arrived - something that I would have assumed would be good!  Birds migrating south need a little wind in their face, it turns out, as it gives them some lift, allowing them to rise fairly high up and soar for miles at a lower energy cost.

Chelan Ridge itself gets more than its fair share of migrating raptors - something about the landscape in the immediate area, and perhaps in the areas to the north as well, funnels the birds to this area, where they enjoy thermals - warm uprisings of air that also assist in their efforts.  Much of the traffic happens later in the day, as the wind conditions usually improve during the day, so my 9:30-12:00 shift was not well timed! 

I didn't add any Chelan birds on this segment of the trip, although I did get to see a handful of Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks and a few Turkey Vultures. In classic "you should have been here...." fashion, a Swainson's Hawk and Northern Goshawk had been seen the afternoon before, and six (!!!!!) Broad-winged Hawks were seen later in the day after I left the ridge! 

These birds spend nearly no time in Washington State, but a few sites in Canada find them bunching up in September, then heading down during the middle of the month.  This was a little on the early side, but not a complete surprise.  Any of the three species would have been a nice addition to the yearlist, but getting to the spot and being able to add the road and the site to my list of Places That Really Really Do Exist Because I've Been There was totally worth it.  To be honest, a goal like 200 species is as much about getting me to new places as anything else.  This is one of the most beautiful ones I've been to.

Down down down

I descended to the town of Chelan down Cooper Mountain Road, passing the aforementioned T and winding down a similarly very drivable road.  No trouble at all was had in negotiating the road, and there were a few good places to pull over and listen.

Squirrel!!!

Okay... I bird by ear quite a bit, and at one point I heard a dry, hard, high-pitched, repeated call... and I was pretty darn sure that I was hearing a Black-backed Woodpecker!  I got my phone out and recorded the call before stumbling out and trying to find the source of the noise.  I tried to see around the trees lining the road but just plain old failed to even see any birds fly in or out of the area where I'd heard them.

Here's the thing.  It sounded like a Black-backed Woodpecker... ish.  There was something about the cadence of the call and the weird location for the culprit that just didn't fit, but... what the heck was it?   Having spent the first ten years of my birding doing almost nothing but chasing down squirrel noises to discover that they were squirrels, I figured it must be.  I tried Douglas, Western Gray, Eastern Gray... I tried some other pretty unlikely ones and had even started in with chipmunks!

Finally, I sent the recording off to Ryan Merrill - a pretty solid birder with a good set of ears. 

Red Squirrel.

See... I'd looked at this from the department of fish and wildlife:

So I didn't think that Red Squirrels would be down-slope from Chelan Ridge on the Lake Chelan side.

But... this is a little more accurate, it would seem (from naturemapping.com)

So there you go!  This amazing strip of Chelan northeast of the lake includes some different fauna as well.  The match for Red Squirrel was very clean, and my ears and brain found some peace.

Mostly just heading home, but...

uhh...Snake - Beebe Springs

I did make a few stops on the way back.  Wapato Lake (nothing surprising), Beebe Springs (still some rails in the marsh!), then across the Columbia to Douglas County.  I tried scoping a few times from this side, and found it was pretty productive.  Not... that I found a lot of birds, or any new birds at all, but the sandbars on the far side were not so far away that one couldn't identify the gulls sitting on them, all in all.  There were no Caspian Terns on those sand bars, for example.  I'm pretty confident of that!

Chelan from Douglas

Orondo Cider Works

I grabbed apple cider, a couple dozen apple cider donuts, and a 40-50 pound box of Honeycrisp apples for $35 dollars.  Finishing up the last one a few days ago reminded me that I'd better finish up the blog!

A swing through Scotty Creek Road off of Blewett Pass finally got me my first Northern Pygmy-Owl of the year - bird 189 for the year and the only new one for the day!

Scotty Creek Road

Partly to show where abouts I heard the Northern Pygmy Owl, partly to have you look for the house in the picture

September Trip - Day One 9/10

Migration

I missed much of spring migration, so I had a lot of hopes for this trip to Chelan.  Shorebirds (my list was stuck at 4 species of them), gulls (2), and raptors were the main targets.  The shorebirds were not something I held a lot of hope for, given the dry August and dry start of September.  They need mud!  One of the best locations for shorebirds in the county - The Cashmere STP - had been dry for some time, meaning that a search of the Wenatchee waterfront would be in order.


Looking for raptors on Chelan Ridge would also be part of the plan.  In the entire state, this is perhaps the single best spot to watch raptors come through in the fall, and I'd never visited!   Factoring in other possibilities, including recent reports, I had hopes for adding a handful of birds to the year list.  Sitting at 185, and the year starting to come to a close, 200 birds is sitting right where it should:  Not easy.  Not impossible.   My favorite kind of goal.

Bright and early

Okay... maybe just early

Incidentally, this is my favorite way to start a trip.  Ridiculously early departure time to get somewhere before the sun comes up.  I made my... well I'm not sure how many times I've done Blewett Pass this year, but I used to think it took a long time to navigate it.  It feels like an easy drive now, maybe because I recognize the turnoffs as I go, rather than just seeing it as an endless winding road.  Wenatchee was the first landing point for me.  I tried Horse Lake Road, making perhaps my last attempt at a Wester... I mean California Scrub-Jay that had been seen there.  Interesting finds nonetheless, including an Anna's Hummingbird, (had been tough earlier in the year), and a Lincoln's Sparrow (not new for the year, but they are in migration and show up everywhere this time of year.

Confluence State Park

I started on the Confluence end - the northern end of the string of waterfront parks in Wenatchee, with dreams of gulls, shorebirds and sparrows.  The gull was the first one to come.  A Herring Gull on a little sandbar where the Wenatchee River empties out into the Columbia.  A dozen or so yellow-footed gulls had a few pink-footed ones joining them - the first ones I'd seen all year in Chelan!  I'll admit that I haaaaaaaate working with immature gulls, but I think I survived this ID challenge well enough.

Herring Gull

Understand... I was holding my phone up and pointing it at the gulls with the sand bar in the center, then inserting my binoculars in front.  I got a few good enough shots and some video to go with Herring Gulls - the most likely pink footed gull in the county.  They had dark primaries (not a Glaucous-winged), and the flatter head and thicker bill fit Herring Gull quite well. 186 for the year!

The gulls were seen as I walked south along the edge of the large campground, taking advantage of peekaboo views of the water where I could.  As I continued along the edge, I found another Lincoln's Sparrow in the brush.  Several ducks were floating around in the little sloughs, including a Wood Duck, which is a species I hadn't seen in quite a few months.

Horan Natural Area

Plenty of Savannah Sparrows in there

I haven't been able to tell properly from signs, but in my head, when I have crossed the bridge over the Wenatchee, and turn towards the Columbia, I'm in the Horan Natural Area.  The tall grass in here held a dozen or two Savannah Sparrows (187) which had been such a tough bird to find - not so in migration! They were easily pulled up with some light pishing, and seemed to be mixed in equal numbers with White-crowned Sparrows - both of them flushing constantly from the trail in front of me to dive into the tall grass.

Walla Walla Point Park

So, once I get back to the main paved path, I figure I'm in Walla Walla Point Park.  Walking along the tree-lined edge of the park and trying to get a view of the water, I was running into trouble, but it does open up if you keep walking - allowing a good view of the little cove and a good bit of mud as well.  While most of the mud was occupied by gulls and killdeer, I did get a good clear call from a Western Sandpiper - the strained quality separating it from Least Sandpiper - and with binoculars was able to see the little peep alongside a Killdeer.  Still too far out for a good view, but it made for a good morning with three new species, putting me at 188 for the year.

There's a Western Sandpiper in this picture for those that are counting - Walla Walla Point Park

Then I walked all the way back.

This isn't a highlight, obviously, but it's gotta be done anytime I do this park.  Ugh!

Breakfast!

I wanted a chance to get a bite, and also to check for any interesting reports for the day, so I pulled into Smitty's in town and joined the midmorning brunchers of Wenatchee.  The food was just fine, and the coffee a little weak (it has to be in a local café in Eastern Washington, yeah?), and the service was great.  The best report I had to follow was one from Clara Lake near Mission Ridge that included a Brown Creeper and a Black-backed Woodpecker, so that became priority number one.

Clara Lake Trail

Clara Lake Trail

Heading up from the Mission Ridge Ski Area above Wenatchee, a trail leads up to Clara Lake, along a moderately steep, but well maintained trail.  The biggest thing I noticed on the way up, at the lake, and on the way down.  There were an awful lot of dogs on the trail!

Bird-wise, this was a big dip, although there were a few nice surprises.  Quite a few Hairy Woodpeckers - nice views of them, and a nice chance to get even more familiar with their drumming pattern.  Some hikers asked me something about did-I-see-the-bear while I was looking for one of these Hairy Woodpeckers, but I was pretty focused.

Clara Lake

Fireweed

The lake itself was pretty enough, and I spied a few hammocks strung up on the far side of the lake - not a bad idea on a pleasant day as it was.  Lots of critters were chattering on the way up as well, mostly chipmunks of one kind or another, but not the birds I was looking for.

On the way down, I stopped to get some pictures of fireweed, thinking ahead to a fire ecology unit we do later in the year, when I saw a couple sparrows scurry off of the trail in front of me.  I waited for them, and found that they were Golden-crowned Sparrows - not a very common find for me at this altitude, and in this much tree cover, although this break in the trees, and the seed crop available helped me make sense of it.

Hotel/Evening explorations

South of Wenatchee - a few lakes

I decided, dusty and sweaty and tired as I was after a couple hikes, that a hotel was in order, so I grabbed a room at the Economy Inn in Wenatchee while trying to figure out what exactly to chase to finish out the day.  I decided to try the lakes near Malaga for waterfowl (I still need Blue-winged Teal and Northern Pintail for the year),

It was interesting trying to find a good view of the little lake just off of the Malaga-Alcoa Highway, and was able to eventually find a few Great Blue Herons, Mallards, and Green-winged Teals.  It seems like such a nice little spot, and being right off of the Columbia, it wouldn't shock me at all to find some better birds in there at different times of the day or different times of the year.

Lake Cortez has a single pull off that allows for views down the narrowest part of the lake. I found nothing of real interest here with the limited view.

Meadow Lake after sunset

Meadow Lake was a bit better!  I found a nice pull off that allowed for good views across the lake.  Nothing too interesting showed up, but with the muddy edges of this lake, I think it would be a good stop during any migration period.  More interesting, in the marsh on the other side of the road, I was able to call up a Virginia Rail - not an easy bird in the county!

Back to the waterfront

The sun was down, and it seemed like it was still light enough to try for Barn Owl at Horan Natural area.  I zipped back through Wenatchee and got to the park just in time to explain to the ranger that I just wanted to run in and look for Barn Owls, which had A) been seen in the park recently and 2) ought to have been hunting at this time of day.  "You want... wait what?"   I explained it again, and he laughed, letting me in.


I hit a pretty good jog across the bridge - a good sign for my ankle which is still on the mend (indefinitely?), and arrived at the large field just inside Horan.  I waited, listened, tried a couple calls - mostly mouse squeaks, but I saw nothing as I scanned the area with my eyes and binoculars.  I gave it about 15-20 minutes and finally gave it up.  After a little negotiation with a family of deer blocking the path, I got back to the car, the hotel, the bed.