February 16th - A Snowy Run through Walla Walla County

Snow

After a few years on the West side of the state, where snow is far less frequent, what a lovely and rude awakening this was! I woke to the sounds of a snowblower at my Mom's place in Yakima. I fell back asleep to that same sound. When I woke up for good an hour or so later, I learned that one of the men in the neighborhood had done a little loop, clearing out drives and walks for people with his snowblower. I had nothing more than light shoveling to clear off cars, and some of the snow at the base of each. 

It had been a slightly dicey trip just to get to Yakima. I stopped in Ellensburg first, heading out for a walk with my son. A music major at Central, he's developed deep connections to places. Before his departure from college this spring, I wanted to go for a walk with him to his favorite spot in Ellensburg. It was a lovely little tromp. We angled up through a park and crested a hill. About as much elevation as one can get in and around downtown Ellensburg, and we stood for a few minutes enjoying the view of the town. 

The drive from Ellensburg to Yakima was not quite so placid. I crested over Manastash Ridge, the northenmost of the three ridges one crests on I-82. With some slush on the road, and no cars within a football field of me, my car did a brief little dance, fishtailing a little to the left... a little to the right. I slowed it down a hair, and white-knuckled it the rest of the way. 

On the morning I left Yakima, the drive was actually quite clean. I made it to and through the Tri-Cities, then across the bridge from Franklin County into Walla Walla. I'd hit several spots immediately across the bridge during my January trip, continuing across the north part of the county. This time around, I hugged the Columbia, rather than the Snake River. 

McNary NWR - Peninsula Unit 

Swans were my primary target here, with sightings tightly bunched in this general area. My eyes scanned snowy fields as I drove. When I reached the Peninsula Unit, I parked not too far from the main road, rather than sending myself down the snowy hill. With scope, camera, and binoculars in hand, I tromped down the snowy hill. 

Raptors did me a solid. An American Kestrel was visible before I tromped my first tromp. A Red-tailed Hawk was perched up closer to the road, and a Cooper's Hawk (species #55 for the Walla Walla year list) tried out a few different perches closer to the river. 

I found some water, but all in the solid form, before getting to the Columbia itself. Sparrows (nearly all White-crowned, a theme for the trip) bunched up in the bushes near the frozen pond. 

The trees along the Columbia held another new species for the year, a Downy Woodpecker (56). As with the individual I'd seen in Columbia County in January, this individual was much brighter than their smudgier counterparts on my side of the state. Certainly, there was an advantage to be had on snowy days like this!

As I got closer to the Columbia, I saw ducks. So many Gadwalls! As usually happens in these situations, I probably should have stopped walking sooner. Many birds took to flight at my arrival. One wonderful surprise happened as I watched through this peekaboo view of the Columbia. Long-tailed Duck! (57). Finally, something resembling a rare bird! The view was brief, but at such short range that it left no doubts. Long-tailed Ducks had been seen by others in the county, although those sightings had primarily been from up around the corner (Hood Park, along the Snake River, where I had failed to find any in January). 

With a chance to scope the river, I found a nice mix of waterfowl. No other species of ducks were new to my list, but I did find some distant Tundra Swans (58). On the return to the car, a Bewick's Wren became the 59th species for the year, calling from icy bushes, and a Northern Harrier did a close flyby.

Third Prize is you are Slain

Zoom in and adjust the color, and you can see that these are American Wigeon.
Take a little more time on them, and you could do a proper search for a Eurasian Wigeon.
Safety precluded any such propriety on this day.

Okay, the line I'm adjusting here is actually from the play/film Glengarry Glen Ross. The team of real estate agents is getting a shakedown from Alec Baldwin. 

We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anybody wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

I'd recently come across this quote, so it was still floating around in my brain as I left McNary and drove down to Dodd Road. The roads were still quite drivable, given the snow, but I saw a huge flock of blackbirds and had an inclination to pull over to look at them. . . and the shoulder was basically piled in snow. I could pull off the road a *little*, but not completely. 

I looked at the traffic situation, which in the moment included a truck behind me as I was there driving like a birder. I realized the monthly birding contest was in effect, in regard to the blackbirds. I could pull over, join the contest, and maybe land first prize. As you all know, first prize would be a Tricolored Blackbird. Tough bird to find anywhere in the state and regularly seen in this general area. Second prize? A Yellow-headed Blackbird. Nice bird to add to the year list. Third prize is you are slain. Probably via truck.

In slow traffic moments, I was able to stop and roll the windows down. Killdeer (60), American Crow (61), American Pipit (62), and Brewer's Blackbird (63). Nothing more than this, outside of not winning third prize. The dirt road that goes from Dodd Road to the Tyson Blood Ponds was all snow. Can we also take a moment to appreciate the indelicately named birding hotspots in this area? Not far from here (but also inviting me to join the monthly birding contest, with all prizes on the table) one can find the Wallula Poop Piles. Blood and poop, enticing as they sounded, were simply not going to be on my list this day.

Madame Dorion Park

The next stop down the road was one where I hoped to have a chance to park safely, get out of the car, and pick through some sparrows. It checked all three boxes. Walking through the park, I came across scads of White-crowned Sparrows - just the thing one hopes for in winter, when trying to find one of the more elusive species. State-wide, this includes Harris's Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows. In Southeastern Washington, this also includes Golden-crowned Sparrow, a more common winter resident on the west side. 

Additionally, I was able to walk up to the Walla Walla River, completely iced over, and watch a River Otter dashing across the ice. 

A really long detour

Across the freeway from Madame Dorion, there is a little unmarked dirt road. It leads to a little parking area that lets you take a hike on an unmarked trail to lovely views of the Walla Walla River Delta. On eBird, some sites are designated as Hotspots. The delta is the 5-star spiciest hotspot in the county, with 239 species having been seen here over the years. By comparison, Columbia County (my other county getting my attention this year) has had 267 species recorded. 

Long-caption time here. I have been on the fence at times with photo editing.
On the one hand, I want the pictures to look like what I saw, 
and in these months. . . it's pretty dang grey at times!
But on the other hand. . . it'd be nice to be able to see some of the color, 
especially when the camera is seeing some that you're not seeing. 
So here's a highly edited Black-billed Magpie. 
It feels like the photographic equivalent of auto-tune. . . 
but at least it's not the sneaky kind - super-obvious editing. Enjoy! :D

I felt like simply finding the parking lot was a victory. I read the description in the Birder's Guide to Washington, and looked out across the snow. "Follow the trail. . . " in these snowy conditions was not encouraging! But my car was not the only car there that day! I was parked next to a Subaru Outback (the company vehicle for birders, if ever there was one), and two sets of bootprints were visible in the snow, setting off towards the delta.

Folks, I tried. I followed the trail of prints, lost them, refound them, navigated an icy slope, and even entered into bushwack territory, where the prints led me under low-hanging branches and over fallen trees. But I lost them at one point, or ended up in a circle, or maybe both. You see, I realized at one point that the male pair of prints (larger, deeper) was leaving the same prints as my boots (a good sign, maybe that there were birders ahead). So, I stood in the middle of this copse, sounds of numerous ducks ringing from the other side, and I simply could not figure out how to get from A to B. 

So, I galumphed back over and under the obstacles, climbed back up the icy slope, and returned to the car - empty-handed, but excited for a return trip.

Port of Wallula

Ah. . . now this was a cleaner stop. I left the freeway and followed the directions from signs, landing at a clear-ish spot with a lovely view of the Columbia. And what an interesting and lovely spot! Millions of years ago, our state received periodic flooding as ice dams would form and break in ancient Lake Missoula. Much of this water was eventually directed towards the Wallula Gap - a bottleneck of sorts. At peak flow rates, the water passing through the gap in a day would over double the combined waterflow through all of Earth's rivers in the present day. Think on that. . . 

Bird-wise, I was happy to pick up a few more species - Canvasback (64), Lesser Scaup (65), and Common Loon (66). Minus the occasional traffic noise, it was really a peaceful spot. 

Dayton-bound

I got into the car and headed for Highway 12. It was getting dark and closing in on dinner time. Exit signs around Walla Walla either didn't do a great job of enticing me with food options, or I completely missed the enticing ones. Either way, I found myself on the other side of Walla Walla, quite ready for some food. 

In Waitsburg, I ended up pulling over at Laht Neppur Brewery (the name translates to "Drink to Life!"). What a pleasant stop! I ordered a pulled-pork sandwich and a sampler of beers (almost always my go-to). I sat with 5-10 of the locals and enjoyed the broadcast of SNL50 with them. 

Yes, it was snowing and miserable in Waitsburg too. 
but, "It's shorts, year-round"

A flight from the 2022 "Tiny Brewery of the Year"

Fed and watered, I continued to the Best Western in Dayton, texted all interested parties to inform them of my safe arrival, and collapsed.