Goodness life has gotten busy.
And when I get busier, the details slip. I have wondered now and again if it's something diagnosable as ADHD? And I think I've even had someone tell me "Yes. Obviously, yes." But. . . I think I'm good. I may have it. I know that my mind can be a maelstrom; It can be a little too focused. But I don't fear that maelstrom.
I... I mean, I just wish that I could go back into that maelstrom and drop in a quick reminder to plug in my camera battery. But yaknow... I'm willing to accept some of this in life to remain who I am. I've gotten good at being gentle with myself in these situations and figuring out the next best plan.
I had opportunities! I had rolled into Walla Walla County on a Monday. I used my camera. I birded. I got a hotel room in Walla Walla. But some combination of "I'm tired of running back and forth from my car," and "I probably have enough charge on the battery," along with, "How did the Mariners do in the ALDS?" pushed this back to a lower priority.
So, as I went through Walla Walla County on a Monday, I got a few pictures.
This picture, somehow, was the best representative for the day. There's no birds in it. . . and on a day where my Walla Walla total went from 149 to 149. . . in a year where my goal was 150? I think this is perfect. I'd put a lot of faith in Eared Grebes and White-throated Sparrows, and that faith (or perhaps my faith in my ability to notice them?) was unfounded. But it was a lovely day, nonetheless.
There were some shorebirds coming through as well, but the Iowa/Dodd/Blood... I don't even know what this site is, after a year birding there. But I could not tease out any new species out of the distant shorebirds I viewed through my scope. And my camera was maybe of even less help. I did have some good views of Pectoral Sandpipers, a species I'd come across already this year in Walla Walla, but that was it.
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| Bloodowadoddason Pondsroad |
I sincerely wish that I could provide an accurate, helpful, simple description of where to park, and where to look for birds at this location, but it's a little bit of soup - even as we near the end of the year! I have found some good birds in this vicinity but am sometimes tripped up by the nomenclature for some of the specific spots, so it has been hard to find reported birds and to report birds found. Alas!
Dinner in Walla Walla - I sat down at Marcy's, as I have done once before. Great food, great drinks, great bartender. She remembered me a month later! On a previous trip, I'd ordered risotto (one of my favorite things to make; one of my favorite things to consume) and had been told they were out. I got my satisfaction this time!
Which brings us to the 7th!
The 7th
That morning, I got up, did not charge my camera battery, and meandered my way towards Godman Campground. During the night, Boreal Owls would be my target. Arriving in the early afternoon, I still had plenty of other targets to pursue. Pine Grosbeak, American Three-toed Woodpecker, and Black Backed Woodpecker. . . I was missing all of these for the year. They were all seen in this area during this very weekend. Spoilers! I missed all of them. It was magnificent.
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| You know who never needs a charge, or seemingly never?? Flippy... my flip phone. All photos from here on out are Flippy's work. Godman Campground |
"Do you find your own birds?"
I won't make it a whole flashback sequence here but will thread another experience in here. There had recently been an outbreak of rare birds showing up in my hometown of Renton. A Red Knot, a Red-necked Stint, an Upland Sandpiper... among others. So, I found myself down on the waterfront, scoping shorebirds with an amazing collection of local birders. It's always nice to cross paths with old friends, or to put new names to faces. I sometimes think that I should chase rarities more often for these experiences.
One new face was a twenty-something birder from King County. I recognized his name, and he recognized mine. We were both, I think, happy to put names to faces. My blogs, and my efforts this year came up in conversation, and he asked, "So. . . do you find your own birds?"
And I get it, I really do. I know exactly what he means. There are birders who seem to regularly be the ones to post about finding a warbler over here, a stint over here, the first name-that-bird found in this county over there. They aren't relying on reports from others - they are out there making it happen on their own. It's a very cool club to be in. I was essentially being asked to give the secret handshake, or something.
But good lord. Yeah, for better or worse, I DO find my own birds. I found every White-crowned Sparrow the day before, and I found a darn lot of Dark-eyed Juncos and Cassin's Finches on this October 7th. I miss my own birds, perhaps. I bring myself to places where there really may have been some pretty cool birds, and I probably miss those cool ones.
To be fair, I am a rare/poor bird chaser. I don't have super long life lists in the state or otherwise, and that is in part because I don't rely on other people finding birds for me. BUT. . . I'll spend a whole year going to Columbia County once a month. lol. I'll get excited for finally finding my first Black-capped Chickadee for my Walla Walla County year. Is that a bird I found on my own? Um. . . heck yeah! But I don't believe it allows me to give the secret handshake.
I didn't know at the time how to answer that question, but this ramble has been about as close as I can get. I'll amend the answer later in the post with one exception. . .
West Butte Creek Trail
Early on, the hike descends into some Douglas Firs, lined with Douglas Maple and Snowberry. Despite all of my complaints about not getting any new birds, I did find some birds that Chris Lindsey (who at the time of writing this has smashed the old Columbia County year list record) still had not found - Evening Grosbeak. They were hardly the only finches during my hike. Cassin's Finches, Pine Siskins, and Red Crossbill were the most prominent other members.
I got Steller's Jays. I got Dark-eyed Juncos. I got woodpeckers.
And the woodpeckers... buckle up friends. I suffered much at the hands of woodpeckers on this trip!
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| I have left the gray line in here - a flip-phone artifact that is easy to remove from an image. I'm leaving it here as a curiosity. |
It was fun watching the Douglas Firs start to turn into Ponderosa Pines as I added some mileage. I was heading southeast. I had this sense that the southeasternmost corner of the county contains some almost sizable patches of Ponderosa Pine, and that it might be a good place to look for some birds like Flammulated Owl, White-headed Woodpecker, and Pygmy Nuthatch.
At one such tree, I heard a woodpecker tapping.
I do enjoy birding by ear, but I usually can't do much with tapping. On the THOK THOK THOK end, it can be easy to identify a Pileated Woodpecker. On the lighter end of tapping, the best I can do is guess Downy Woodpecker, only to get surprised by a chickadee. In between, on a good day, my brain will remind me that the tapping sounds like a sapsucker.
15 minutes later, I tapped out. I had heard the bird resume tapping several times, had tried to get some alternate views of the tree, but it just remained out of view. Onward!
What a great trail! It slowly started dipping lower along ridge lines. I passed one group of four on horses and could see the appeal of riding on a trail like this. And the weather was just magnificent. Not so hot as to get me dripping with sweat, not so cold as to need more than a t-shirt (I brought, and quickly removed, a hooded sweatshirt). The breeze was light and pleasant.
And then I came across another tree, another woodpecker, and this time I dug in. I had driven to the far corner of the state, hiked farther towards said corner along mountain ridges, and through forests... looking for birds. I wasn't going to just walk away from a woodpecker! Ha... ha.... ha?
After 20 minutes or so, I was starting to doubt my sanity. This tree was closer off of the trail, so I walked down to it, circled it as I viewed the top. Nada. I got briefly distracted by a finch calling in a nearby tree. I turned to look at it (Cassin's Finch), and heard the worst possible call, a "pik" sound. Still just leaving it in the Picoides family and confirming that there was a woodpecker up there. My guesses narrowed softly to a Hairy or Three-toed. It wasn't a soft enough call to be a Downy. It wasn't wooden enough to convince me it was a Black-backed. At the time, I'm sure White-headed was still on my list of possibilities, mostly because I'm not at all familiar with their call. So, the call was able to pin me down there without actually identifying the bird.
Folks, I tried. I circled this tree a few times. I tried viewing from higher up on the trail where I'd started. I tried laying down under the tree against my pack - just looking up. Did I spend 40 minutes trying to get a peek at this bird? It's very possible. Sometimes this just happens to me with woodpeckers, but to have this happen twice on this hike, when all I really needed (in daylight) was woodpeckers. I had a lovely laugh over this.
I'd budgeted enough time for a lazy hike, so this wasn't a hardship. I kept moving along, seeing the trees continue to shift towards pine. Some of them I looked at, and thought maybe they were Lodgepole Pine? But some Ponderosa were clearly mixed in.
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| Cones, needles, bark, lichen, and a few rows of sapsucker holes. |
On the last stretch back to camp, my phone buzzed with score updates from my daughter. She'd picked up on the excitement of the Mariners over the summer. She was now my most likely person to send an angry text about a pitcher, a roster move, etc. I was shocked more than anything that I was getting reception. In Columbia County, reception had largely been limited to a circle around Dayton. This was a godsend. Not only because I got to share the time, but because I've been trying to make sure someone knows where I've gone off to. . .
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| Flippy did some good work this day |
I got back to camp and worked on the other half of a sub sandwich I'd purchased at a gas station in Dayton. I hopped in the car on a whim, and found a station with the game, listening through the last innings, and actually drifting off to sleep in the car!
I woke up with it dark a few hours later and decided to give my night of owling an honest start. My destinations were the Twin Butte Trailhead and Table Rock. Both had at least some history of Boreal Owls - a species I have never heard or seen in life. I rarely use recordings, but for this particular owl, it seemed like this was the one way to go. Their habitat is often inaccessible during times of year when they are singing. In this window (September-November), they will respond to their song with a "skiew" call. I often hear a similar call from Northern Saw-whet Owls, but a good listen to the Boreal call put me at ease - it was pretty distinctive. Less harsh, a little rounder. Cute.
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| Godman at top, Twin Buttes bottom right, Table Rock bottom left |
I followed pretty good owling protocols. Stopping every 1/3 of a mile or so. Calling. Waiting. Calling. If I got no response from Boreal, I'd try other smaller owls (Northern Saw-whet and Northern Pygmy), then try a call or two for other larger owls (Great Horned, Long-eared, Barred, Great Gray), just depending on what the landscape seemed to warrant.
It was absolutely beautiful, with a nearly full moon lighting up the landscape for me. It was nice being able to drive worry free in that regard. And the stops were fairly quiet with the occasional light breeze making noise in the trees. But it was not uncommon for me to be in dead quiet spots with ear "visibility" reaching pretty far out!
My first destination was Table Rock. I started down the road and did not get all that far...
A fallen tree across the road was not what I was hoping for here! Table Rock was by far the better chance for me to find Boreals - they'd been located here in recent years (and as of this writing, over a month later, they have now been found up there this year!), and it would have been a perfect night for it. But I made the 27-point turn on the narrow road and headed towards Twin Butte.
The road to Twin Butte provided some good owling, with at least two response skiews from Northern Saw-whet Owls, possibly a third, and a Barred Owl!
And this is where I would ... look, I'm still not going to accept the secret handshake, but when it comes to owls, I don't do all that bad with finding my own birds. There are still species of owls I'm missing in the state, but over the years, I've come across Long-eared, Spotted, Barred, and Northern Saw-whets in situations where I'm not just following the sightings of others.
And in the case of Barred up here in the Blues?? They're still listed as a Code 5. And I was able to find them twice during the year. Saw-whets... I whistle well for them, and maybe am just trying for them more often? It seems like in Eastern Washington, owling is just... go to the tree where you know there is a saw-whet roosting in winter... observe the Saw-whet... and be done with it. I may eventually grow out of this enjoyment of standing outside of my car on deserted roads at two in the morning, whistling softly for saw-whets in October? But that day does not feel close.
So, sure, if there are any birds where I find my own? It's a handful of owl species. How do I find them? Owling. But I'm still not qualified enough to learn the handshake for the Society of Talented Birders. :D That would require some demonstration of talent during daylight hours!
I got to the Twin Butte trailhead. Tired. I parked it and fell asleep once more, moonlight shining more and more into the car as the early hours passed.
I got up a few hours later as it was just starting to gloam.
It was a beautiful morning that just continued all of the beauty from the day before, the night before. The zero new birds thing? Yes. That continued to be a thing. But it just couldn't ruin the morning. I even picked up Northern Pygmy-Owl at another stop. Not a new bird, but a fun find. Any owls are a fun find, yeah?
And then grouse!
This was by far my best view ever of Dusky Grouse in my life. And what equipment did I have on hand? Binoculars, a flip phone, and a view through a dusty windshield. I only decided to catch some video after several minutes of catching pictures with this set up. The bird was pretty happy to just poke around in the road for me. They're listed as a code 4 bird in the county, simply because they're not found every year, although this wasn't my first sighting of grouse up in the Blues this year. Nor my last!
After packing up at Godman, I started down Kendall Skyline Grove and came across another pair of Dusky Grouse. Tame as all get out. Right out in the road.
AND... another woodpecker. I gave this one ten minutes in a tree right at the side of the road, then just took the L.
Dayton
Breakfast was at Locally Nourished, naturally. I got the hash with some added sausage. I also picked up some local honey.
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| A rare pic of the author - Godman CG Photo credit: Flippy |
