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| Putting Walla Walla and Columbia Counties in the rearview mirror oh wait... that's the side mirror. Please roll with this thought, anyway. :) |
Good lord, I did it. The goal? 150 species for the year in two counties on the far side of the state. Doing it with monthlyish trips. Columbia: 158. Walla Walla: 151. December came, and I tapped out! It had been a long year of long trips, and the potential additions weren't enough to pull me over. So, I'll put a bow on it.
One fun piece that I do every year is emailing Matt Bartels. Matt is one of two people who have seen over 200 species in the state. He held the previous record for Columbia County at 172 (broken this year, but mind you... the 172 is pre-eBird!). He also happens to manage the county checklists for the Washington Ornithological Society.
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| Checklists, much like maps, are one of my favorite things. Both of them are abstract representations of real things. It's so fun to find the "real" versions of all of these words! |
Those checklists have all of the species coded out, and they are the first stop in all of my yearly planning: Code 1 birds are the ones that are hard not to find (although Common Nighthawk in Columbia made a fool out of me this year). Code 2 birds are not hard to find (I got 52 of 55 in Columbia). Code 3 birds ARE hard to find (80 percent seems to be my sweet spot when I focus on a county for a year, and I got just over that in Columbia).
Birds beyond those codes, the 4's and the 5's are a real challenge. At best, a pattern of sightings, but not annual birds. In this case, I went into the year wondering... which of these code 4 birds would TRULY be code 4 birds. In other words, try all I want, they just might not show up.
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| Green-tailed Towhee - a code 4 bird that might be found annually with some effort? |
I got some answers!
Scouring the county along with me this year were Christopher Lindsey and Jef Blake - two eastside birders who decided to give it a little more attention as well, including some kayak trips along the Snake and Tucannon Rivers, turning up some birds I never would have found. Both of them eclipsed the old record of 172 species (197 and 186 respectively, barring any last-minute surprises!). Along the way, we brought up some good questions for the county codes. It's especially fun to do this in underbirded counties, since it helps paint a more accurate picture of the abundance of some of the birds out there. Matt takes all of the suggestions objectively and consistently. How he manages 39 counties with hundreds of birds coded in every county is a mystery!
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| Say's Phoebe - one of very few observations I had of this code 1 bird during the year |
But what fun! I have enjoyed going through the pictures from the year... taking in all of the beautiful places I've been. So many of them were brand new places for me, but Columbia County especially feels like an old friend now. I'm still a dozen-ish birds short of 175 species in the county, so I'll be back in years to come, trying to find Boreal Owls, American Three-toed Woodpeckers, maybe a Merlin.
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| Man...If I have to go back here someday to look for Great Gray Owls... How terrible would that be? ;) |
Walla Walla was indeed as easy as I thought it might be. My life list grew to 177 with not a lot of focus. It's just a birdy place! Add to this, there is such a robust birding community in the county - leaving plenty of breadcrumbs for other birders to follow. Walla Walla County needed nothing from me this year, and I dare say I gave it everything it needed! I looked at the list of birds seen in Walla Walla this year (over 260 birds!), to see if there was even a species where I had been the first person to find it for the year. Uh.... yes and no.
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| First person during the year to have trouble identifying gulls, at any rate. :D |
There will be other counties like this as I continue this lil journey (Sure, Tim... this 20 year journey that you're half-way through is "lil"). Seeing 150 species in Grays Harbor... lord, I want to look it up now, but I think that's been done in a day?
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| Correction - 162 species! :D |
The present plan is to pair Grays Harbor with Clallam some year down the road. Just make it an absolutely stupid year.
I'm honestly scared of that year! If a Song Thrush or a Bay-breasted Warbler shows up, I have this sinking feeling that I'd be as flat-footed as... well, as me. As it turns out, I have almost perfectly flat feet. Come to think of it, that may explain so much...
So, I figured it was time for a little warm up. A county that is perfectly ready to dish up some good vagrants. A county that will test my ability to identify a wider range of shorebirds, gulls, and (gasp!) pelagic birds. And yet, somehow... an underbirded county? It'll be Pacific County in 2026!
And, yeah, for the first time in 3-4 years, I'm actually going to focus on a single county. The last single county effort was Klickitat County - 1800 square miles, and 3 1/2 hours away. Pacific? 900 square miles, and 2 1/2 hours away. Not only closer for me, but closer to a lot of birders. I actually have some hope that we'll get a little bit of a picnic table effect and find some good birds in 2026! No passes to clear, like I had in 2025. Heck. I may even chase some birds in 2026... unspeakably rare for me. The year list record is 220. I'd love to see how long I can keep it in reach!
But for now, goodbye Blue Mountains and wheat fields. Goodbye Snake and Tucannon, Goodbye Walla Walla and Columbia. <3 Thanks for the special year!
