I woke up in Walla Walla with 132 species for the year. An early text to my daughter let her know that I'd be heading up North Fork Coppei Creek, and then off to Columbia County to hike Oregon Butte. I did turn those plans upside down, just in the sense that I stayed down at lower elevations, rather than heading to the high point of Columbia. But it was the Curious George song that largely inspired the title here.
Who's to sayWhat's impossible? Well, they forgotThis world keeps spinning, and with each new dayI can feel a change in everythingAnd as the surface breaks, reflections fadeBut in some ways, they remain the sameAnd as my mind begins to spread its wingsThere's no stopping curiosityI wanna turn the whole thing upside downI'll find the things they say just can't be foundI'll share this love I find with everyoneWe'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songsI don't want this feeling to go away
It came up on the radio just as I fired the engine after gassing up in Walla Walla. At the time, I honestly thought that the soundtrack was one that Kieran had loved. Just now, I see that the film was from 2006, so that's quite impossible. I know he loved the books. We read a lot of children's books to the kids. While Kieran was with us, he definitely had some favorites, including that silly monkey.
Silly though? Curiosity, especially as portrayed in the song. . . well, okay it's got a little silliness to it. I have definitely had times where my imagination has pointed me to some birding destinations or birding questions that anyone with Good Birding Sense would not visit or ask (respectively). Every once in a while, it's brought me to some amazing spots, and amazing birds. But even when it hasn't. . . like, when I found myself riding a golf cart in the southwestest corner of Mason County, looking for California Quail. . . the silliness has been part of the value of the experience.
And there was some silliness to this day! Down in the far corner of the state, ready to look for some birds. But. . . look at my last post. Wrong places, wrong times, without a deep knowledge of what some of these birds even *look like* in the fall. I was going up a road I'd never been up before, planning to look for a Williamson's Sapsucker at "the cherry spot", but had not even discerned where that was on the road. And then, I was birding Columbia County... silly.
This song, on the day that we lost him, so many years ago, put me in the right mood for some curious exploration, some silliness, if you will.
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| Silo near Dixie |
North Fork Coppei Creek
Fun. I hadn't been up this road ever. Nor had I been up any of the roads leading up from the Dixie area, in probably a decade. It was neat to see how they were all connected. I hadn't fully realized when I started that my road would take me up to Jasper Mountain, in a roundabout way. Roads were at least well signed, so I found my way up fairly easily.
Very early on the road, I caught a pile of sparrows on the side of the road. I got good looks, but no pictures of, a Lincoln's Sparrow, mixed in with White-crowned, Savannah, and Song Sparrows. As with the previous day, I had hopes for Brewer's or Vesper, but the Lincoln's and Savannah were new for the year (birds 132 and 133 respectively for the Walla Walla year list).
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| Enjoy the razor-sharp focus on the plants at far right. Sorry about the sparrows - they were not fun to inspect lol |
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| Golden Plums - one of several fruit tries along the lower part of the road |
As I drove up the road just another mile or so, fruit trees turned to conifers, and I found many of the birds one would expect, with new birds including Black-capped Chickadee (134), Mountain Chickadee (135), Golden-crowned Kinglet (136), and Hairy Woodpecker (137). Many of these came in for close views as I gave toots for Northern Pygmy-Owl. I also heard some whapping at a tree and eventually got a view of the source: a Williamson's Sapsucker! (138)
It took a little more elevation gain along the road to pick up some other birds that were on my list of possibilities - Cassin's Finches (139), giving vireo like calls from treetops, Varied Thrush (140) giving single chup notes from deep cover, and a silent Hammond's Flycatcher (141). I've come to think of Hammond's as a boy wearing his dad's sport jacket. The wingtips are longer, so when these birds are perched, they reach pretty far down - a field mark that is hard to miss once you've picked it up.
I also got a massive push of sparrows. I stopped the car and counted 50 passing over the car. I got out and tried to shoot some of them, finally getting one - Chipping Sparrows! I'd picked some up, back in May, coming down from Jasper Mountain.
Speaking of Which
Jasper Mountain is just pretty. I drove slow-ish, and eyed every branch, hoping for a peek at a Great Gray Owl. They're up here! I have nearly zero experience with the species, so I'm sure that there are better ways/times/dates to look for these owls. At the very least, I didn't want to miss them simply because I wasn't alert!
Lunch was in the car as I drove. Some cheese, fruit, and crackers. But I stopped in at Buckwheat Brewing in Dayton to pull open the laptop. I checked emails and found some of my alerts for Columbia had gone off. Most interesting to me - Solitary Sandpipers up Tucannon Road. . .
I thought it over and decided to focus down low in Columbia - trying for sparrows, shorebirds, and ducks, rather than heading up to high elevation hikes to try for woodpeckers.
Water?
Pittman Road was not busy - some Mallards, some Canada Geese, and a couple Killdeer. One surprise was an increase in the number of Savannah Sparrows. But nothing new. I then headed for a new pond... at the Touchet Valley Golf Course!
I had seen sightings from a few years back that included Greater Yellowlegs at the golf course pond. I figured I should leave no stone unturned! There was an honor system in place for payment, but no sign that helped me figure out how much to pay, so I left $10 - something less than one would likely pay for golf, but still a thank you for allowing access.
There were a few people out and about golfing, and a few lingering swallows zooming over the greens. The pond was easy to find! It had enough water to pull in some birds! The water was just a bit too clean? Hard to say. I sometimes try to get in the head of birds, trying to sort out why they visit or don't visit different spots.
Tucannon Road
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| Patit Road harvest |
From Dayton, I went right for Watson and Beaver Lakes. This is where Solitary Sandpipers had been seen, and it was not a spot I'd visited before! Across Patit Road, and down Hartsock Grade Road to Tucannon. Up to Watson and Beaver Lake. . . You see, I only just now got the skinny on this. The sign said "Watson and Beaver Lake", and I found only one lake during my time there. So, I assumed that the name of this singular lake was "Watson and Beaver Lake". But nope! The one that I saw was likely Watson Lake. Beaver would have been accessed down one of the other trails I passed.
Success!
Solitary Sandpiper - 156 for my Columbia County year list. Incidentally, it was just 159 for my life list! Over the course of the year, I've rendered almost every other trip I'd made to Columbia County meaningless. I'd only seen three birds in previous years that I have not seen this year - American Coot, Common Nighthawk, and Caspian Tern. This particular shorebird is one that I've romantically wanted to find for a while. The idea of shorebirds making their way up into the mountains to migrate through lakes - one specific species in a county where shorebirds are so difficult to find - I just loved this.
Dragonflies and other insects had my attention as well.
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| Mardon Skipper? That's my best guess, although range maps that I found point me away from that identification |
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| Carolina Grasshopper |
One other fun sighting? A snake swimming across the lake.
Heading down the road, my next destination was a barn. I had passed a farm a couple of months back where people were busy moving cattle along the road from one field to another. It stopped traffic and gave me a chance to make an inquiry about their barns. They confirmed that they'd had a Barn Owl in their barns, off and on, and that I was welcome to check their barns on a future visit. On this day, I pulled up the long driveway and saw nobody except for the family dog. I got some barking, but not a ton. In a few minutes, a tractor came down the driveway, with farm machinery in tow.
"Hi! Sorry for the surprise."
"It's fine."
I went on to explain the earlier interaction, and the gentleman got me up to speed on which buildings would be good to check. It was really a lovely interaction. He was on board with the curiosity and wished me luck. I quickly had some luck just walking to the first barn:
Lincoln's Sparrow! 157 for the year, and 160 for my life list. This bird was not unexpected. Lincoln's Sparrows move through the state during sharp peaks in April and September. But it's not always easy to figure out exactly where they're going to pop up. I enjoyed views of two of them before heading into the first barn. The barn itself was a wash. The corner he had identified as the usual hangout for the Barn Owl. Equipment made it hard to view, and the glare from outside made it impossible for me to pick out much in the dark. I tried different angles, to no avail. I tried their building across the street, to no avail.
Black-eyed Susans were in bloom all along the road, and it got me to pull over. Butterflies and bumblebees played in the blooms. I am certain that I was looking at the largest species of bee in the state (not counting things like murder hornets). These bees were flat out ponderous.
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| Nevada Bumblebee has been suggested |
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| Clouded Sulphur? I think so. |
There had been some neat birds seen on Cemetery Road out of Starbuck. Vesper Sparrows and Sage Thrasher were part of that list, so I thought it would be worth a look. What a fun, slow exploration! I had several opportunities to get out and look at sparrows. The overwhelmingly abundant sparrow was Savannah, with a few White-crowned and Song Sparrows mixed in. Say's Phoebes also represented the first ones I'd seen in the county since January? February? Since back when it was snowing, at any rate!
Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks were also part of the mix in this desolate landscape. I admittedly was caught a little flat-footed with the flora here. I knew that I wasn't looking at Big Sagebrush, a species that really pulls in sage species. I knew that Rabbitbrush was likely one of the species in the mix but couldn't even pick that out.
The most interesting thing on this stop, yet again (!) was buglife. It took some searching, but I think this bunch of flowers was being visited by Red-necked Longhorn Beetles. It was so interesting to see them in flight, with their bodies dangling below them.
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| Curious about the identification, only because all images of Red-necked Longhorn Beetles show me a beetle with a black head... these are red and black |
It was getting just late enough. I thought it time to head back to Dayton and find a room. The Blue Mountain Motel was my stop once more. It was a much better price than the Best Western down the road. As I checked in, a trucker asked me if I'd recommend the rooms, and it actually caught me flat-footed. There was something in the back of mind that I couldn't remember. . .I remembered once I got checked in and tried my computer: The slowest connection I have ever seen. :)
And yaknow... we need to experience that occasionally. Everything is so fast today! But it did hamper my ability to make much of a plan for the next day. I was certain that the focus would be Walla Walla County! This day had not been what I had originally planned, but I went to bed with no regrets.
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