Still encouraged by the things I'd read about Jasper Mountain, I made plans to return to the spot after spending a short evening there the night before. I slept in a little bit after a long day of birding. I got packed up, got out to my car. . . and gazed in through the window at my key fob.
By design, electronic key fobs are there to keep you from locking your keys in the car. The car can sense the key and will take action against you locking things up. These fobs, however, are not necessarily designed to be run over multiple times by cars doing 40-50 on a major thoroughfare, as happened to mine a couple of years ago in Kalama.
I tried the door handle several times, hoping that the car would register the key, and my hand, and relent. But it remained decidedly locked. Thankfully, I have continued to keep AAA for this exact kind of situation. I gave them a call, got them the address, and was told that I'd see a driver within an hour - and then within a half hour.
I used the time to step into the minimart next door to the Blue Mountain Inn where I'd stayed the night. I got myself some breakfast. My go-to for any sit-down cafe is a Denver omelet. And back behind the counter, I saw that this was one of the offerings for a hot breakfast. I ordered, and the gal behind the counter went back to read about how to make one.
"We just started doing omelets," she let me know. It was kind of clear in the end that this was the case! It was one of the messiest omelets I've ever seen, although one or two of my efforts at home would give it a run for its money. My mouth cared not at all, as it got all of the egg, cheese, ham, bell pepper, and onion that it wanted.
I sat on the sun-baked office chair outside of my hotel room, enjoying the gentle breeze and the tasty mess as I waited for the tow truck to arrive. My coffee rested on the air conditioning box, and I thought of what the plan was for the day. Jasper Mountain.
From the previous day, and from things I'd see online, I had a good few reasons to head up. Grouse, owls, woodpeckers, and other possibilities for summer arrivals.
Up the Mountain
Finally unlocked, I thanked the tow guy and hopped in my car. A little later than I'd hoped, but I really didn't have a lot of plans for the day. At some point, on my way up the road, I thought I'd try to be more protocolled than I usually am about my lists. I knew that I wanted to give Northern Pygmy Owl a solid try, so I kind of went with owl-style protocols. I'd pull over, listen for a few minutes, whistle for a minute, listen for a few minutes more, then head another third of a mile up the road, recording all of the birds I'd heard each time.
For comparison, there are times where I'm checking things off of a species list and then going back to things later and estimating the numbers. I try my best with those estimations, but I know there is some accuracy lost. With stops every third of a mile, I also figured I'd have the best of both worlds - not double-counting birds, and not potentially driving past some good birds just because I wasn't expecting any at a given stop.
Very first stop got me a new bird - Gray Catbird! 128th species for the year. I couldn't really cajole it into coming out of deep cover. Kind of typical for this species.
I got my fill of Chipping Sparrows, if nothing else! They were nearly a constant at every stop. As I got closer to the top, I also got to hear a Pileated Woodpecker (129). My woodpecker list, despite this addition was missing many of the species that had been seen already this year - Red-naped and Willimason's Sapsuckers, American Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers. There had even been sightings of a Red-breasted Sapsucker earlier in the year! Pileated Woodpeckers really never need to be all that close to be detected. Their wild jungle calls can be picked up from lord knows how far away.
I reached the top, and was still owl-less, (here is the list for the trip, just to provide a summary of my slightly more diligent efforts) but had arrived at this little gated area. Private lands that are available for hunting and/or dispersed camping. I slipped through the gate and went on a nice little wander.
This side of the mountain was facing the valley formed by the South fork of the Touchet River, with Robinette Mountain off to the East. The path took me out onto this open flower-covered hillside with views of the valley below.
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| Flower 1 |
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| Flower 2 |
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| Flower 3 |
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| Flowers! Likely a few identifiable in there |
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| Flower 4 |
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| Flower 5 - some kind of allium (wild onion) |
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| Flower 6 |
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| Flower 7 |
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| Flower 8 |
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| Flower 9 |
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| Flower 10 |
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| Flower 11 |
A side "game" for Walla Walla, where I'm not putting in quite as much focus, is to try to get the life list to 175 species by year's end. This has been well on-pace!
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| This boat will serve as a nice symbol of my optimism. It gives off a lovely "Come hell or high water" vibe |
We shall see!
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