March 26th - Kendall Skyline Road

For starters: 

I include this little snip, taken from Google Maps, zoomed in on some seemingly obscure back road nearly at the southern border of the state. Clearly marked! Kendall Skyline Road. 

And it turns into . . . NF 64? NF 6436? Lord even knows. And then one can find roads marked Kendall Skyline Road on stretches of road up near Dayton. I've honestly been trying to just sort out. . . is it a road, or is it a trail? Is it continuous? Does it have different names along some sections? Who is Kendall? 

I have found more questions than answers, so let me again give you a map showing you where I went. 

The Big Picture. Things start as "Eckler Mountain Road", and seemed to be signed as such for much of the first stretch.

A little more zoomed in for the latter half. You can see Pioneer Park here as 
a good landmark!

My hike over some snowy roads to the end of my walk. 
It just got steeper and snowier, and I had found some good birds!

So, maybe seasonally the road continues and would get you to that clip at the start of the post here, but you have no guarantees from me on that speculation. 

Eckler Mountain Road? 

I'll call it that for now. I took it up towards Pioneer Park and loved the beautiful scenery as I rose up above more and more farmland. 

The road wasn't always great, but it was drivable! As I approached Pioneer Park, I realized that I had bluebirds on wires bordering the fields. Both Mountain, and Western Bluebirds (species 92 for the year for Columbia County - a number I'll keep track of parenthetically here). 

Western Bluebirds - female and male

Pioneer Park itself was a nice little stop. Flickers, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Cassin's Finches, and Red Crossbills. It was a nice little patch of Ponderosa in the middle of all of the agriculture. Across the street from the park, some nice open fields hosted Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier, and a single Rough-legged Hawk (93). This is not an uncommon bird in the county, but one I'd been struggling to find! Even here, the views were brief. 

A Red-tailed, at least, posed for me!

Up, and up, and I passed a parking lot on the left (you can see it in the images above, near the end of the line for me). I finally got to a point where a sign informed me that my car really shouldn't continue. As I have done so many times before, I used this as a cue to get out and walk. It was hard to believe how different things were, compared to the previous day when I'd been hiking near the Snake River in 70+ degree weather, now I was tromping through snow under a forest canopy. I had Chickadees aplenty, including my first Chestnut-backed Chickadee (94). 

As I tend to do in these situations, I did a little Northern Pygmy Owl whistle periodically. I got no responses. As I was starting to get a feeling of FOMO (fear of missing owls), I stopped at the sound of an American Goshawk (95). The Blue Mountains are one of the best places to find these birds, but it's still an unexpected treat. The bird gave several rounds of the piercing, wild, ki-ki-ki call, letting me get a recording on my lil' flip phone to make comparisons later. 

Yes, there's a Chestnut-backed Chickadee behind those crisp-lookin' branches
What kind of idiot even includes bird pictures like this??
This kind right here. 

But no Varied Thrush yet! This disappointed me, honestly. I was thinking about this, and of how walks up snowy roads like this had led me to Varied Thrushes in other counties in other years. Resolute, I started back up the road, when I got a quite unexpected culinary question: "Who cooks for you?" Barred Owl??!! (96) It called clear as a bell and twice from . .  . gosh maybe 100-200 feet away, and then never again. I tried to get the thing to call back with a variety of calls, but had to just let it go. 

Barred Owls, unheard of a century ago in the state, have moved in and made Washington home. But. . . not all of Washington, really! Western Washington has plenty of Barred Owls, but they are largely absent from the lowlands of the Columbia Basin and are still scarce in the Blues. Fewer than five records had been recorded specifically for Columbia County. So, this counted as a second good stroke of luck in a very short time. 

So...okay, it's a long read, but I *think* they're saying that if you go there when
you're not supposed to go there, then they *may ban* you from going
there for the rest of the time that you're not supposed to go there. 
Chew on that.

But my favorite bird of all, Varied Thrush, had deserted me. I shook my head, wondering how it could. "I'm probably going to get to 100 birds in the county before I get a Varied Thrush. You'd almost think that they don't know how much I love them." I tried throwing this out into the cold air around me as I tromped back down towards my car. 

Ha! It worked. Varied Thrush, bird 97 for my Columbia County year list, and the last new one for the trip. 

I made my way back down and stopped for a meal at Moose Creek Cafe and Bakery in Dayton. Not a place I'd stopped before, but I'm glad I did. Nice view of the county courthouse, and it was interesting to listen to the locals at a nearby table talking about various topics of civic interest, including the 2023 closing of the jail in Dayton (people are brought to Walla Walla when that is necessary). I paid up, hitting the road, and stopping only briefly to gaze at the Snow Geese in Burbank one more time, in hopes of turning up a Ross's Goose. Nope!

More to come, but not until May! Vehicular-driven expenditures had me tightening my belt. Vehicular-driven lack of driving made it easy for me to include "not going to the opposite corner of the state" in my list of belt-tightening measures. At least for April!

Columbia County Courthouse

March 25th - Water, Please!

75

I woke up in Dayton. 75 species under my belt for the Walla Walla year. Here in Columbia County, my January and February trips had brought me to 75. Where could I take that number? 

March is a great month for water birds. They're starting to move a little, so there are increased opportunities to catch a good bird passing through (as I had with a Eurasian Wigeon the day before in Walla Walla). They're even starting to move towards breeding plumage, a nice aid should I come across some loons or grebes. And folks, Columbia County is not a great county for water birds! 

With snow disappearing from the slopes of the Blue Mountains, I also had some hopes that I could make some headway on some more forest-loving birds. 

I continued to book nights at the Best Western, although the 6 AM breakfast would encroach more and more into the hours when I'd rather be birding than eating rubbery eggs! The nightly rates would also almost certainly increase as the months went by. 

Pittman Road

There'll be water if God wills it. I think that's how the expression goes. His Will seems to generously extend year-round to a nice little pond on the outskirts of Dayton. I picked up some American Robins, and European Starlings on the way to the pond, nothing unusual. At the pond itself, I was greeted by four (!) species of ducks. A veritable bonanza for Columbia County! While American Wigeon, Mallard, and Bufflehead had all been ticked off of my list for the year already, Ring-necked Duck (76) was a new one. 

Bonanza, baby! Ring-necked Ducks, and a Bufflehead

In many parts of the state, it would even be a great time to find a Greater Yellowlegs striding the shores of this little farmland pond. But it's just far enough out of the way. Birds coming north, following the Columbia or Snake, would have to take a pretty sharp turn *away* from those rivers to land here. That, and the water was high enough - not leaving a lot of mud. I still had hopes that geography, directionality, and seasonality would lead to some shorebirds here, come spring. 

Yes. . . I'm sorry Killdeer, you count as a shorebird. 

Ish. 

Wild Turkeys were getting flirty in the distant fields, with the males displaying and strutting around the females. I also added Tree Swallows (77), which were gliding along the distant hillsides, occasionally coming in closer to the water. The dozen-or-so Red-winged Blackbirds that seemed to be resident here had also been joined by at least one Brown-headed Cowbird (78).

Tempey Road? Timpey Road?

I've honestly seen both, between signs, GPS, maps. . . who knows? But I headed here, in search of a little more water. Peering west from the roadside (which borders Lewis and Clark State Park), I found a dozen Green-winged Teal (79) using a bit of flooded field, along with some Mallards and Canada Geese. Bewick's Wrens and Song Sparrows sung from behind me, along the shrubby/marshy ditch lining the state park. I think this is the best view of this sometimes-productive spot, but I would love to be corrected!

Dayton Fishing Pond and Park

There's always water here, but it must be the least interesting water known to duck. I can always find Canada Geese, and usually Killdeer, but all other hopes have led to disappointment here. I did not do a check of the river, which has had Common Mergansers and American Dipper in the past, but the pond itself seemed like it should be checked in March!

Double dose of "-kins" here: Catkins and Siskin

Some Pine Siskins and a Red-breasted Nuthatch provided at least a little variety for the stop. 

Highway 281

Fields along 281

All water for this trip. I went right for some fields that are also occasionally flooded. Milepost 6 or so seems to be the sweet spot. With some rare shorebirds that have turned up in these fields, I considered this an obligatory stop. I was not disappointed! The fields had dozens of Canada Geese and Mallards, as well as a half-dozen Killdeer. Nothing more interesting but even being able to give all of these waterfowl and shorebirds the once over made it feel like a productive stop. White-crowned Sparrow songs (Gambel's) provided the soundtrack for most of this stop. 

Texas Rapids HMU to Little Goose Dam

On the way out to Little Goose Dam, I stopped here to give the river a scan. Bingo! Horned Grebes (80).

To say that these are more common that Eared Grebe (which I had found in February) isn't saying a lot! I was pretty relieved to find them. As I was listening to a Spotted Towhee (81) calling from the brush at the HMU, I heard a harsh gravelly call from the far side of the road. It took a while for me to recognize that the call I was hearing was a Chukar (82)! They're listed as a code 4. What does that mean? People don't report them every year in Columbia County. For birds that are almost certainly resident, it leads to a belief that there just arent' many of them, or that they are extremely local. I was happy to get a picture, poor as it was!

Some people had stopped at the river to do some fishing. One of them had brought a dog along, and it was *very* excited to hear the Chukar. The men talked about the birds, identifying them as Chukars without me even joining in the conversation. So, maybe not as rare as the code would imply? Who can say? 

Common Goldeneyes, not new for the year, at least added to my day list, which had not been too bad for waterfowl so far. 

Farther down the road, I stopped to scan some cliffs that seemed pretty birdy. Starling, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Violet Green Swallow (83), and Canyon Wren made this worthwhile. I'm still missing Prairie Falcon for the year! So, that is a species I continue to hope for every time I do scans like this. 

What is nesting here??

The dam itself? Canyon Wren and Western Meadowlark. And splashy water, if I need to make it more interesting! There wasn't much to look at, so I hit Riveria Road. 

Wolf Spider - from Little Goose Landing. Oh yeah! I looked there. Nothing notable.

Riveria Road

It's not Riviera Road. . . read that carefully. In my head, I really want it to be the latter, but I'm almost to the point where I can say the actual name of the road aloud. My big hope here (in addition to Prairie Falcon, or Rough-legged Hawk), was a Ferruginous Hawk. Years ago, I had come across one on this road, and I'd actually photographed one the day before (and spent a lot of time confirming the field marks). So, I was *ready* for that hawk! 

Ravens... Horned Larks... Western Meadowlarks...Oh, and cows.

It got a little interesting with Red-tailed Hawks added into the mix, giving me a chance to scan them for the red tails, belly bands, and that dark bar/patch between shoulder and wrist underneath. Nope. 

I finally hit the turn where Riveria Road hits Highway 281 and turned south on the highway to head towards the mouth of the Tucannon. And a Ferruginous Hawk flew over the road. 84! I checked field marks as I pulled over, confirmed them from the side of the road, then hopped out to get a picture as the bird dipped under a slope and out of view. Satisfying at least that it was so close to the spot where I'd previously found this species!

Tucannon River Mouth

Time for another hike! This 1.5ish mile walk is a slog in places, but leads to one of the best water views in all of Columbia County. I had picked up some good waterfowl in February, and I was hopeful for more today. 

What a great walk! On my last trip, I'd been chaperoned by a gregarious Downy Woodpecker (who I'd given the playful moniker "Robert Downey Woodpecker". This time? Butterflies! Along the whole walk, I had Mourning Cloaks flitting around in front of me. It felt like the same two, but there had to be at least a half-dozen visible along the walk. 

Rock Wren (85) was the first new bird for the year list, calling from the rocky slopes surrounding the river valley. Near the end of the walk, Marsh Wrens (86) made it a four-wren day, along with Bewick's and Canyon. I'd seen Pacific Wren here in February, so I'd just have to come back in the summer to complete the sweep with a House Wren!

At the mouth itself, I got plenty of waterfowl once more. Pied-billed Grebe, Canada Geese, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, and Bufflehead - all seen previously - as well as a pair of Northern Pintails (87) that popped out from around some tall riverside reeds. 

Both American and Lesser Goldfinches called from overhead and from trees throughout the entire walk. Like... every time I go there, they are plentiful! Wild Turkeys (seemingly everywhere), called from the hills as well. 

Many-a-duck

I tromped back and got my obligatory cup of coffee in Starbuck. I arrived around 2 and sadly missed the lunch offerings (soup and sandwiches). Some month, I'm going to get this timing correct. 

Sir, would you like some more water?

Nope. No. At this point, I wanted to get UP. Exploring Tucannon Road as far up as it would take me. I had mapped out roads where good birds had been seen - ones where I saw lists from Very Good Birders, which left me wondering if other additionally cool birds had been seen but had to go unreported. In a county where Great Gray Owls are seen, but must be reported invisibly on eBird, I wanted to get a look at the habitat in the lower reaches of the Blues. 

Tucannon Road, mind you, is a long road! I took it all the way up to Tucannon Campground and started my birding there. 

For perspective, here's the view of my path from Starbuck. The route shown goes all the way to Panjab Campground - a good landmark for explaining where I actually went: 

Interesting that it shows that other route through Dayton, yeah? More on that to come. But now that you see generally where I was going, let's zoom in another step: 

This layer shows that when you pass the Fish Hatchery, you're getting close-ish! Another step in: 

This layer is nice because it shows Panjab Campground - I did drive up there, and it looks like a great place to camp! As well as Ladybug Campground - I didn't go that far. And it gives perspective for where I DID go: 

Maybe it'll take some squinting! But Google Maps labels this as FR-4620. My car's GPS? Maybe my road map? Maybe signs?? Had this labeled as "Turner Grade Road". It is worthwhile, at any rate, to expect *either* designation. I took the light blue all the way to the edge of this image, and no farther. 

I got some chickadees, some nuthatches, some flickers (everywhere... everywhere flickers) in my various stops, but no new birds until that later stretch. Admittedly, as that road starts to wind, there were some rocks to dodge in the road! One of those rocks, I did not dodge. And I got to learn exactly what my car's clearance is not. THUNK. THUNK. The car continued driving - perhaps more than I deserved. 

Heard, but not seen - Mountain Bluebirds! (88) I didn't expect these to be a challenge during the year, but it was just nice to get into their habitat finally. Also, as I tried calling for Northern Pygmy Owl, I got some responses from Steller's Jays (89). That I'd not come across a single one for the year felt surprising to me, but the elevation and tree cover definitely made it more welcoming for them here. 

Way up slope, I heard another bird, much rarer than those other two. I was happy to get some craptastic pictures to document them. Clark's Nutcracker! (90). As a code 4 bird, I was sure that they'd end up on my geez-I-dunno list later in the year, but here they were, giving their nasal calls from the hillside. 

Great Gray habitat?? I think maybe not? As I look more and more into it, I think the pros (open habitat surrounded by forest, and lots of perches) were outweighed by the cons (no real meadows - just steep slopes). So, I don't think I'd go back here for them. Still, what a lovely place to take in some mountain birds that I'd just missed so far for the year!

The road ahead was far from drivable! So, I returned down Tucannon Road until I got to Hartsock Grade Road. This road took me to Patit Road, which was paved and enticing! Big open fields, bordered by deep forests. Mix of farmland and undeveloped areas. I really thought I might find a Rough-legged Hawk along this stretch, but alas no. During one stop, however, I was able to listen to singing Cassin's Finches - much like Purple Finches, but drier - less sweet - if we can turn birdsong into wine for a minute. They taste the same sometimes, I swear.  91 for the year list!

Back to Dayton, dinner at Buckwheat Brewing, and off to bed with me - within spitting distance of 100 species for the year!

March 24th - Spring-ish in Walla Walla County

Who knows where the time goes? 

Lovely song (look up the Eva Cassidy version - trust me on this), and not a bad question here. Two months have passed since I made a run to the Southeast corner of the state, and I recently got back from *another*. So, as I type this, I'm six posts behind. Some kind of personal record, I'm sure. 

At least two things led to this. One was simply work. The change in volume largely came from some work on a high school text for an intro to agriculture class. I could write a book about this experience alone. I've been in there reviewing chapters and actually got called on to write one of them. Writing under pressure is another world. You really don't have time to be in this world. Just write. I enjoyed it and hated it both! Enjoyed because it was fascinating content (technology in agriculture) and hated it because it took me right out of life - just day to day wondering how much I could get done in between obligations. 

The other delay? My car. There were a couple of issues that I finally got addressed. They were inconvenient and expensive. I had a lot of days where I was finding rides from the good people in my life, and other days where I didn't need rides... and was "free" to stay at home and write, with my feet to the fire. It absolutely drove home how much peace, joy, and mental goodness I derive from having my car. I do not take for granted the simple fact that I have been *able* to take these trips for quite a few years running. 

It's a lot on a car, and. . . if you choose to read through to the end of May, you're going to read about decisions that . . . they're just not car-friendly, folks. I really don't hate my car. As much as my decisions may speak otherwise, I really don't hate my car. 

Oh! One more thing - until five minutes ago, my blog did not have the Pages widget over on the right side of the posts. Give them a look! I do want you to understand what I'm trying to do, and I want you to see how things have been going. It's been an interesting year, and I think both of those pages frame the interestingness quite well. 

...

... really, I can wait while you give them a look. 

...

Thank you! Okay, now what exactly happened on March 24th?? Here's my best recollection. 

The "Lost Day" Protocol

I've been freelancing as a writer in science education - hoping for a company to make an honest writer out of me someday. This has - not to my complete surprise - not paid all of the bills. So, for almost a year now, I've been spending some evenings hosting karaoke and trivia as a little side gig. Little, but not so little on a Sunday morning when I've closed out a bar and gotten home and gotten to bed at nearly 3 in the morning. 

Following these days, I'm often dropping in on my Mom in Yakima (2-2.5 hours away), then continuing the next day to Walla Walla County from there (another 1-1.5 hours). On this particular trip, Mom was pretty busy with other things, so I had the *option* of driving straight to Walla Walla on a Sunday morning. But I made a decision to use my Sunday to rest, recover, pack, do wash. After a relaxed day like that, I can get out pretty early on a Monday, as I did. I am liking this plan. 

With this in mind, I got out the door around 6:00 Monday morning and made a run for the county so nice they named it twice. 

McNary 

It's hard to make promises here, but I *really* want to not just bird the West side of Walla Walla County. But goodness. I enter the county, crossing the bridge from Franklin County, and I immediately have so many good birds available to me! So, yes, just like I did in January and February, I stopped shortly after crossing the bridge. Rather than going to Hood Park, my first stop was McNary. 

I have not been running after life birds with any kind of energy. It's fun when I find them! But I'm just as excited when I find the first Black-capped Chickadee in County X for the year. It's a problem. I freely admit this. These blogs are essentially dedicated to this problem. But here I had a chance to pick up a life bird via my county year-list problem (I'm stopping here, and I apologize if you've already read the page talking about my plans for the year. But did you?? If you didn't, go give it a skim. Come on. It's over on the right side. . . thank you!).

Ross's Goose is a bird seen Every Single Year in our state. If all I wanted to do was add to my year list, this is one of the top ten easiest birds in the state that I would have added by now. They come through in the spring, and again in the fall. They're Snow Geese, but smaller. Not quite the same big (literally) honking bill that Snow Geese have. Two had been seen at Burbank Slough, my first stop in the county on this fine day! Could this finally be my day to add this bird to the ol' life list??

(Spoilers - no. Probably not)

Distance and camouflage (a word I always need to check) defeated me. I had a LOT of Snow Geese to look through. I even got them in flight in a LOT of photos. Sadly, nothing has jumped out at me, either at the time, or while scanning through the photos, as being particularly smaller. Take a look at the previous post in this blog "The Goose Post" if you want to experience the haystack of Snow Geese as I have. 

But did this stop me from having a lovely morning of birding? Absolutely not. I was actually greeted by a bird that was new for the year, Greater White-fronted Goose (species 68 for the Walla Walla year list - a number you'll continue to see in parentheses). 

These are my favorite geese. Back when I started birding (twenty years ago? Where does the time go, indeed?) I found out that these not-quite-as-common geese could regularly be seen right at home in Renton, down at Gene Coulon Memorial Park. I'd bring my kids down to let them tear all over the play equipment, and I'd keep an eye on the beach and lawn around the swimming area, where these geese could often be seen. 

"One of the most amazing things about birds is how you learn something new about even the most common birds every time you see them." I don't believe that sentence. There are *plenty* of times where I see Northern Flickers doing the exact same Northen Flicker things that they were doing the last dozen times I saw them. But the geese actually did take me by surprise, two decades after the first time I'd really noticed them. 

The trick here was that I got to see them landing. I've seen them in flight. Seen them in the water or on grass. But on this particular day there were multiple groups that arrived while I was there. It was so fun. For whatever reason, they don't just land gracefully and in unison, as I see so many other ducks and geese do. In my mind, the best comparison would be to a squadron of X-wings suddenly being ambushed by some tie fighters. Evasive maneuvers. Geese dancing and dodging erratically on their way to the water. Evolution is behind this somehow. I'm sure of that. What a quirky and joyful result. :)

A normal looking group of Greater White-fronted Geese

... and then the wild banking and spinning starts!

Burbank Slough was quite full of waterfowl, these geese aside. Canada Geese in fairly small numbers, and Snow Geese by the hundreds. I settled on 800 for the eBird report. . . but I think the accuracy of this estimate decreased every time I skimmed through and looked at each goose. By the end of it, I asked myself if I wanted to look at all of them *again* to get a count. No. Nope. I'm good. 

Duck-wise, there was good species diversity, including Mallard, Ruddy Duck, Ring-necked Duck, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Northern Shoveler. None of them were new for the year, but they gave me plenty of birds to scan through looking for something new and/or rare. 

From the observing platform on the North side of Lake Road, I also got a Ring-necked Pheasant (69) as a new year bird. Crossing to the South side of the slough, I gave the geese another gander. From a rise in the road just past the parking, I had better looks but nothing would give me a Ross's. So, I hit the Quail Trail. 

From the refuge office, this little trail meanders almost parallel to the water's edge, eventually providing a little spur that runs right up to the slough. Here, it leads you to a lovely blind. It's quite large - giving 180 degrees of views of the water. The walk to this spur gave me Cedar Waxwings and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, as well as a few Marsh Wrens (70) chittering from the marshy areas. And California Quail, of course!

Dodd Road and thereabouts

On my eBird reports, I've been pretty comfortable combining some hotspots that are pretty darned close to each other. Dodd Road itself has some good birding - I scanned through the flocks of starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds, hoping for something new, but nothing really jumped out, and I couldn't find that sweet spot - close to the birds, but spaciously safe from traffic. 

So, I scooted past the Tyson property, turning on a dirt road to the right. If I understand the hotspot nomenclature correctly, I was looking at "The Blood Ponds", although this little road was taking me past several other ponds that certainly didn't seem to be connected in that way to the Tyson property. Another reason that it felt reasonable to just lump these roads together, rather than parsing them quite so finely. 

Yellow-headed Blackbirds (71) were heard loudly all along this road. The marshes between me and Tyson provided a near constant soundtrack of their crazy chainsaw-like calls. But none were visible. At one point, camera tucked away in the car, the entire flock did deign to rise from the marsh, and I was presented with more Yellow-headed Blackbirds than I have ever seen at once in my life. I've admired 5-10 of them at once, perhaps, but this was dozens of them. Beautiful. 

In addition to the blackbirds, I added a couple of common birds - Redhead (72), and Violet-green Swallows (73), as well as a slightly-less-common Eurasian Wigeon (74). 

9-mile Canyon and a 10 mile backtrack

From Dodd Road, I got back on the freeway, experiencing a distinct lack of freedom as construction slowed traffic. Continuing east on Highway 12, I turned up 9-mile Canyon. Gosh it was quiet. The occasional Western Meadowlark broke the silence, but bird-wise, it was nearly a shutout. A hawk flew over a ridge, popping into view long enough for a few pictures. I couldn't see it all that well at the time, and assumed it was a Red-tailed Hawk, but it was actually a rarer bird, one that I hadn't seen in a few years - Ferruginous Hawk (75)!

I thought that I should at least get a wider shot of the road, and the beautiful stark scenery. But. . . where had I put the camera case, which held the other lens? I looked through the car, front seat back seat trunk. Nope, no, and nope. 

And I returned to McNary. Back through construction traffic, back to the observation platform, where my camera bag was sitting and waiting for me. 

Goodness. 

Then back through construction and Highway 12 towards Walla Walla. I considered the time, and considered my uncertainty about a good stop, or a good target bird. I was just coming up empty! So, I decided to shift from birder to tourist. 

Wine Country

It would feel silly to spend a year in Walla Walla County without hitting any wineries. I did, and was glad to have done it. I'd feel silly talking about wines from L'Ecole 45. It's one of the most prestigious wineries in the state. You can read about the wines from someone more skilled than me. 

It was a slow day, and they let me wander a little. The piece that hit me hard was a mural that had been completed by students. An age ago, when I was working at the Northwest School in Seattle, I had the opportunity to design a mural with students and have them paint it over the course of a month or so. Just seeing something similar here threw me back in a good way. 

I left with a couple of bottles, a purchase that waived the tasting fee, which has always seemed like a fair enough arrangement. 

I stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way out of town. It wasn't all that great! I really do love finding little spots and having some reasons to give them a little plug in here, but I couldn't find those reasons. And so, that stop will fade from memory. 

I pushed onward to the Best Western in Dayton - my home for the next two nights!

75 species in Walla Walla! For the moment, this tied it with my Columbia County year list. I got to bed good and early, excited to put Columbia back in the lead.