Running Jokes
A birding companion last year got to experience a number of my running jokes firsthand over the course of a long day of birding. As I talked about how they work their way into blogs, I thought it would be wise and/or fun to number The Ten Running Jokes in my blog. The tenth would simply be that there are only nine. This whole plot never came to fruition. Thank goodness.
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| I will tell you 11 times in this blog that this is my favorite bird - Varied Thrush Have I explained why it should be the state bird...? |
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| Wenhorawallafluence State Natural Park Point Area From Chelan County birding. If I don't decide to rename a location this year, assuming 100 percent adoption by the public, (birding and otherwise) it'll be an odd year indeed. |
There are, of course, many reasons that I enjoy these trips, the goals that drive them, and the accidental intersection of human lives (including my own) with birds and nature. One of those very important human lives is my Mom, who lives in Yakima. (Author's note - I learned years ago that Mom is not capitalized in sentences like the one you just saw. Not according to grammar rules, but my Mom always disagreed!)
I had a lot of options for the year - still about a dozen years of birding plans to carry out before I reach my goal. But I needed to choose counties that would get me passing through Yakima. That hasn't happened since 2022 (Klickitat County), and it just felt like the right time. That could have led me to other counties, but two other priorities (distance from Yakima and backpacking options) sealed the deal on Walla Walla and Columbia.
So, visits with my Mom in Yakima will be a running theme this year.
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| A map of time, if you will, with past years (and the total species seen for the year), future years (marked with nebulous question marks) and the present year marked excitedly at bottom right. |
Going Home
My trip started with a deposit of my son at CWU in Ellensburg on the 5th. We covered a lot of conversational ground between Renton and Ellensburg. I'm going to miss "having" to drive him to and/or from Central. We arrived a little late in Ellensburg, and I needed to get to Yakima for dinner, so I passed on an offer that left me with a serious pang. He wanted to take me on a walk to his favorite spot in Ellensburg.
I was so happy that he has become a connoisseur of places. With him, none of it is built in a day. He needs a spot to develop associations over time, and in different seasons. I took him to some beautiful places last year in Jefferson County - places whose memories elicited a shrug from him. Not that they weren't beautiful, but that they were beautiful in completely impersonal ways. I couldn't make that walk on that day, but I need to get there with him.
On that note, dear reader, thanks for letting me take you to these spots in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties this year. Thanks also in advance for letting me try to share how these different places hit me. If any of this sharing gets you out to these beautiful places to do your own exploring. . . well, that's the real reason I do these blogs, if I'm being honest.
Ellensburg to Yakima was drop-dead gorgeous in parts. Cresting Manastash Ridge, I was able to look down at the topside of a dense layer of fog, resting on the ground as far as the eye could see, with scattered snowy hills peeking above the fog like islands.
Lovely evening, dinner, and morning with Mom. No words can really help beyond that statement. After helping her a little with taking down Christmas decorations (something she does religiously each January 6th), I struck out for Walla Walla with a lunch packed in a brown paper lunch sack. Perfect.
Welcome to Walla Walla County!
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| Bridge from Hood Park |
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| White-crowned Sparrow to kick things off! |
Hood Park
This park breadcrumbed me endlessly. I got out with binoculars and camera, leaving the scope in the car, just so I could take a moment to look around in the immediate vicinity. I imagine a simple loop that would just bring me right back to my car after five minutes of walking and checking things out, but the loop branched off to a little brushy patch, and then to a slough, and then to a large pond, and. . . I got back to my car 30-45 minutes later having done a pretty wide walk around the park.
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| One of legions of Flickers at the park |
The habitat was great. Brushy patches near the parking lot were bustling with so many Yellow-rumped Warblers (2), American Robins (3), and more Northern Flickers (4) than I've possibly ever seen in one place. Dark-eyed Juncos (5) were in no shortage, and other passerines early on included Ruby-crowned Kinglet (6), House Finch (7), Spotted Towhee (8), and Song Sparrow (9).
Of all things, the Song Sparrows threw me off. Over on the wet side of the state, the birds look like the drizzle made their paint run. They're just darker, browner. During my trip, I noticed that Song Sparrows had much more contrast in their plumage, with lighter markings to contrast more with the dark. One such sparrow had me staring at it quite a bit, wondering if it was possibly a Swamp Sparrow before it let out a *chimp* call to identify it for what it was.
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| Reddish cap bordered by grey on the face, pale chin, and a line through the eye... but the black streaks dissuaded me. And *either* this bird gave a SOSP call, or it retreated and got replaced by a different bird. I'd have enjoyed hearing a different call note! |
A vee of mostly Cackling Geese (10) flew overhead with a Canada Goose (11) escort. Then I finally got to some water, giving me Mallard (12), Gadwall (13), American Wigeon (14), Green-winged Teal (15), Ring-necked Duck (16), and Bufflehead (17). Nothing like a little pond to get a year list going!
Throughout the morning... throughout the trip, for that matter, it seemed like there was almost always an American Kestrel (18), or a Common Raven (19) or a Red-tailed Hawk (20) in view or not far away. My path finally brought me back to the Snake River. I was excited to have a look for some Long-tailed Ducks that had been hanging around the park recently on this stretch of the river.
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| Ring-necked Ducks, American Wigeon, and Mallards - Hood Park |
Long-tailed Ducks are code 4 birds in Walla Walla - not seen annually, seen at least five times in the past. Spoiler alert! I found only two birds in Walla Walla on my trip that were higher than code 1, including the Cackling Goose (code 2) mentioned above. To be fair, there are 125 code 1 birds in the county; only Grays Harbor has more! Hopefully this explains some of my optimism in the county. Meeting goals should be easy enough, but it was still odd to be missing so many slightly-less-common birds.
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| Russian Olive - a Code 1 plant in the county (if such codes existed for plants) |
On the water, I did pick up quite a few new birds, including Common Goldeneye (21), Double-crested Cormorant (22), Bald Eagle (23), Greater Scaup (24), American Coot (25), and Belted Kingfisher (26).
On the shore, a Spotted Sandpiper (27) checked in as my first shorebird of the year, and four Snow Geese (28) flew past.
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| Spotted Sandpiper |
Other birds picked up along the way at the park included Western Grebe (29), Cedar Waxwing (30), Spotted Towhee (31), California Quail (32), Mourning Dove (33), Pied-Billed Grebe (34), and Eurasian Collared Dove (35).
McNary Wildlife Refuge
I looked at my checklists, and my map. With Ice Harbor Dam so close by, why not head there on the way to Dayton? But even closer, trivially closer, was McNary Wildlife Refuge. I made the short drive and even found that they had an observing platform that would simplify things further for me. From the platform, I immediately noticed a Northern Harrier (36) cruising over the marsh. Canada, Cackling, and Snow Geese were all relaxing on dry ground next to the water. For ducks, I added Northern Pintail (37), Ruddy Duck (38), and Northern Shoveler (39). Bobbing around next to some of the ducks were a couple of Rock Pigeons (40).
Ice Harbor Dam
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| Barrow's Goldeneye |
Yep! Just like that, I zipped off from one of the finest wildlife refuges in the state! That brown bag lunch had been consumed by now, and I was torn between a trip to the dam and a trip through Walla Walla. This may be a recurring theme over the course of the year - Dipping down through Walla Walla (almost down to the Oregon border!) adds about 20 minutes to the trip to Dayton (in Columbia County). I chose the straighter shot, with a quick detour to Ice Harbor Dam.
At the dam, some ducks near the shore caught my eye first. They included Common Mergansers (41), Common Goldeneye, and Barrow's Goldeneyes (42).
Barrow's is a code 2 bird - together with the Cackling Goose representing the "rarities" I'd find for Walla Walla! This is a spot where I'd had them on a previous trip many years ago. Good reminder to check near the dams in Columbia County for this species, which is a little harder to find there.
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| This is representative of most of my gull experience. Distant, poorly lit gulls in flight, feet tucked in |
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| Horned Grebe |
Driving a little farther past the dam, I eventually came to some Horned Grebes (44), as well as some gulls that were perched, including a Glaucous-winged Gull (45), American Herring Gull (46), and a Ring-billed Gull (47).
Roll on to Columbia, Roll on
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| Many miles of this |
Highway 124 continues through farmland to the interestingly named Columbia County. It is named for the Columbia River, which doesn't actually pass through or by the county. The Snake River does form the northern border for Columbia County. As I continued on the straight shot east through farmlands, the Snake turned North, receding from view.
Black-billed Magpies (48) and European Starlings (49) were quite common as I drove. At one point, I saw a field with hundreds of bids. Geese? This was all that crossed my mind at first, until I pulled in closer. Wild Turkeys! (50)
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| Turkeys! About 1/20th of the flock |
I've never seen so many gathered in one place. The flock started making a run for it as soon as my car slowed. Apparently, they are used to the steady highway traffic but know when they're being watched! As the highway took me through small towns like Waitsburg and Prescott, I picked up a couple other incidental birds, including House Sparrow (51), and American Goldfinch (51).
Prescott got a little more of my attention. I drove some of the city streets, windows down, hoping to see or hear a California Scrub-Jay that has been hanging around. As I crossed into Columbia County, I repeated a similar process in Huntsville. California Scrub-Jays were once very unusual birds to find in Washington State, but they have gradually been making their way northward. Columbia got only its first record a few months back, and I hoped to recover it. while I had no luck with that, I did find a Sharp-shinned Hawk (5 - Columbia).
Sorry, I got talking about scrub-jays, and totally skipped over my first birds for the county: Red-tailed Hawk (1), Northern Flicker (2), Canada Goose (3 - a very large flock, giving me hopes of a rare goose mixed in), and Mallard (4 - a similarly large flock in a soggy field I'm definitely going to be seeing again).
Dayton
The seat of Columbia County, it's got a population of over 2000 people, a National Historic District, the oldest train depot in Washington State, and a Best Western, where I got myself checked in. After getting things situated and catching up on emails, etc, I realized I'd better get out to dinner before anything closed.
The local visitor guide I grabbed at the desk sent me to the Fire and Irons Brewpub and Pizzeria. It took me a minute to realize that there was a brewpub and pizzeria sitting right where the guide had sent me, but just under a different name: Buckwheat Brewpub and Pizzeria!
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| image from Buckwheat Brewing Co. site |
This nice little spot went through a change in ownership just four months back. From the sounds of it, nobody wanted anything changed - the sellers, the buyers, or the locals - in regard to the recipes, from the beer to the pizza (both were great!). The signs changed to reflect the new name, and new swag was already in place, from hoodies to hats. There had also been bookshelves lining some of the walls, as it had at times served as a "sip and read" kind of establishment, but those bookshelves were being covered by paneling, and the decor is shifting in taxidermical directions.
Speaking of removing books, Dayton came within a whiff of having the first library shut down in the recent waves of book-banning. Apparently, tax funds for the library are collected in Dayton, but the voting for library policies (such as the policy to have one) lie only in the outskirts of town. The vote happened, and it was to be shut down, but the decision was struck down as unconstitutional on "but... we're paying taxes for it?" grounds.
The bartender was super-friendly - she chatted it up with two other folks at the bar, and asked as she came with my pizza, "So what's all of the scribbling there?" I'd had my notes out, kind of mapping a plan for the next day. I filled her in on the year and noted that I'd be coming back roughly once a month. As the conversation turned to Barn Owls (it always does. I make sure of that) she mentioned friends who owned a B and B. Specifically, not an Air B and B, as that company takes a pound of flesh for each stay, increasing costs for the renter and tenant both.
"So, it's less than most Air Bnb places, and a lot less than like... the Best Western." I don't think she saw the hotel card on the table, but it still made me laugh. I got a card for the place, paid up and went back to the hotel. Buckwheat is definitely a place I'll be coming back to! Even in my hometown of Renton, I've appreciated it when I see businesses helping out other businesses. The other recommendation was to try out Locally Sourced, a cafe up the street. I went to bed with a healthy to-do list!
Which is really the only reason I do this. :)
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