Forgive me that. It was that or Superbird Sunday? But in the end, the owls won. Why? It's February, which is always owl time for me. I nearly always head out in January for owls, but over time I've come to realize that it's not the peak time to catch them calling, with the possible exception of Great Horned Owls (which I'd had without even trying in Lyle back in January.
Swale Creek
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| The moonlit drive down the Centerville Highway - 4:32 AM, according to the file info |
This was a much-looked-forward-to stop. Looking back through records, there were so many different species of owls that had been seen here. The drive was beautiful, with a waning gibbous moon hanging low in the sky. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to explore, so I hit the road shortly after 4.
In light of what I had mentioned regarding solo birding in the post from the previous day, it should make sense that this hike checked all the right boxes:
- Before 5AM
- Below freezing
- Coyotes calling in... a few different directions.
What more could a person ask for! I grabbed the headlamp, but mostly went without it, as the moon was able to light my way down the Klickitat Trail quite well. In fact, the moon provided one of the only scares of the morning. I was walking along when... I saw a dark figure moving on the far bank of the creek. I paused... waited holding my breath... then continued. I didn't see anything and kept walking, periodically catching a glimpse of the dark figure out of the corner of my eye. Just my shadow, of course! I had a good laugh about it at the time, at any rate.
The only owls I had at first were distant Great Horned Owls, but I did eventually come across a stretch of the trail where I got some nice single low hoots from a Long-eared Owl (78 on the yearlist). This was a fun find - I definitely wanted more, but in the last year in Douglas County, March had been my best month for owls.
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| Side excursion towards Hartland Lake. I wanted to find places to come across Short-eared or Barn, but nope! |
When I'd made it back to the car, I thought maybe it would be worth trying the more wooded area to the South for Northern Saw-whet Owl. I stopped several times along the road, gradually making it to Hartland Lake, which had nice wetlands that I thought might be good for a few different types of owls. But nope! As that gorgeous book, Owl Moon, states, "Sometimes there's an owl, and sometimes there isn't."
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| This didn't capture it. I tried. The entire morning, the sun was catching little bits of moisture *everywhere*, lighting every humble shrub up with countless colored gems |
And yes, likely due to some brain injury, standing in the still freezing air, watching the moon set, and eventually watching the sun rise without adding a single new owl suited me just fine. I was in a beautiful place, which of course is the only reason that I go on these trips, right? On my way back from the area near Hartland Lake, I did spy a small raptor in a tree - Sharp-shinned Hawk (79)!
The sun had risen, and I retraced my steps on the Klickitat River Trail, hoping to find an American Tree Sparrow that had been seen there. The sunlight hitting the millions of drops of melting ice was amazing. The fun new add for the year was a Northern Shrike (80). My camera certainly had different ideas on what I was excited to see...
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| Camera's got its own ideas, clearly - Mount Adams (back), Northern Shrike (front) |
A flock of Red Crossbills (81) flew overhead, sounding very much NOT like the local crossbills I get to hear. Reviewing the recording I got, as well as other recordings online, I settled on Type 2 for these guys. All of these Red Crossbills are (somehow) the same species, but there are distinct types that use distinct trees to feed. These guys use Ponderosa Pines and have bills to fit the situation.
I got back to Harms Road, where I had parked, and decided why not try the trail to the South/West from there?
Nothing new on this stretch, but I did get some fun. I came to a stretch of the trail that was lined with young Ponderosa Pines and was startled as a Great Horned Owl flew from the tree right above me! It flew up the trail and out of sight.
I walked farther and flushed the thing again. And again, and then returned up the trail and flushed it again. And another time. I kind of lost count, but. . . as owls go, this did not seem like it had a very good routine in place for these situations!
At this point, I'd put in... 4? 5?? miles of walking and decided - let's go find a hike!
Catherine Creek
I'd heard good things from Karen about the trail from the previous day, so I thought I'd give this trail a try. I'd passed the trailhead from Old Highway 8 on Saturday and thought it would be well worth visiting. This walk was splendid. Splendid!
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| Everywhere. There were like... nearly always 6 or more Lewis's Woodpeckers nearby. |
I've seen Lewis's Woodpeckers in other parts of the state, so I understand they're not some super-rare bird, but there was a ridiculous number of them on the trail. Literally. I am thinking of the number, and I am ridiculing it for being a big number.
There were a few points along the way where I saw what seemed to be granary trees for Acorn Woodpeckers. These woodpeckers drill a series of holes in the top of a snag, and will stuff acorns into the holes, saving them up for the months to come. I peeked at many of them, passed them, and kept walking up the kinda poorly marked trail.
At some point, I dug in my heels. I saw another tree that looked like a granary tree - I think the third that I passed - and decided, no. This is where Acorn Woodpeckers live, and I will just wait for them to come here. This never works for me. I see mud and wait for shorebirds, I see shrubby patches and wait for sparrows. It rarely works out like this. Birds always need like... so many things. Apparently, for example, shorebirds don't eat mud!
This time, however:
This was so much fun. I'd always thought it was part of bird's genetic complexities - this ability to mess with me and NOT show up where you'd expect. But there were two Acorn Woodpeckers (82) coming in, spending time at the granary, flying away, coming back. I sat for nearly a half-hour, just watching them do their thing. Despite any indications to the contrary, it really is the birds that bring me out to these places, clearly.
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| Bridge over Catherine Creek |
"Oh! No... no parking lot this way."
So, I went back down the trail now. Still surrounded by Lewis's Woodpeckers, as well as Steller's Jays. I came across another group and was officially adopted for the rest of the hike. Understand - I'm an extrovert at heart, but I am a strategic extrovert! I will admit, I tried to speed up a little, slow down a little, but in the end, I was WITH this group, so I just gave up and drank them in. I'm actually disappointed, because I lost a business card I was given at the end of the hike!
One splendid thing we discovered was the fact that a few species of wildflowers had found a way to star blooming in February. We didn't "discover" this per se. For me it was brand spanking new information. For many people on the trail, it was why they had come that day. It was why they would be coming back many times during the year. Catherine Creek, it would seem is a heck of a place for wildflowers throughout the year.
For me, I appreciated that I wasn't overwhelmed by a super large number of wildflowers. There was a single bloom that most people were there to see - Grass Widows. I found a good number of them on the trail, took a lot of pictures, and all of them came out fuzzy. Fortunately, I caught some the next day at a rest stop:
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| Grass Widow |
Gold Star was another one I found fairly often:
Within this image, I had one more flower I wanted to hunt down - the pink one! Looking over the pictures I could find, and bugging wildflower people, I think I'm leaning towards Bulbous Woodland-star Lithopragma glabrum. This was just a start, but... from all accounts, I need to come back here in other seasons to get a look at more wildflowers!
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| Western Bluebird - Splendid! |
My new friends spotted a flash of blue, and we were able to hunt down a Western Bluebird. It took some trickeration to get my camera to try to get the bluebird in focus, but I succeeded with a solid B- attempt.
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| Raaaare author photo |
I'd put in a bazillion miles of walking, and added some good birds for the day, so it wasn't completely unwelcome when work called. I made one stop along the way to stare at backlit ducks at one of the roadside ponds, (but picked up a singing Canyon Wren (85)). I sat down at Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, got through emails, and took some time to figure out, where next?
These trips... I put so much planning into them, and those plans are put to death as soon as I find my first bird. Not to death, but there are shifts. I never really regret the roads I take, and I actually might if I went into the trips uninformed - if I didn't know what was possible - what my options were.
At the time, my biggest group of missing birds were ones living in the more forested areas, and specifically over here on the West end of the county: Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Evening Grosbeak, Band-tailed Pigeon, Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Barred Owl, Pygmy Nuthatch, Purple Finch, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper. These were all birds that I thought I might spy by heading up a back road, kinda northeastish out of White Salmon.
Heading up a back road, kinda northeastish out of White Salmon.
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| Snowden Road |
I actually hit a few different roads that I took out of town, although I think that they took the name Snowden Road for most of the way. Chestnut-backed Chickadee (86), and Pygmy Nuthatch (87) were the new birds on this road. More importantly, the road was new. I loved winding through the deep forest, and occasionally popping out into open farmland. Snow was also still lingering on the ground more and more as I continued.
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| This is why I choose to get lost. |
That picture... it's hard to say enough about how beautiful it was there, so I won't. The picture almost does it. Not a Brown Creeper to be seen or heard anywhere. I was still on a paved road, but traffic was blessedly light. Magical stop.
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| Snow kept this from happening |
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| What actually happened |
Hooboy, I did try to follow Sleepy Hollow Road all the way to Appleton, and from there to Klickitat, and to Goldendale for the night. It just was not to be. I had enough sense to stop, turn around, and take Lyle-Snowden Road down to Lyle.
I got to the Columbia at not a bad time at all.
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| Sunset on the Columbia |
Addendum: February 14th
This would have been nothing but a trip to Yakima if my brother had told me that my folks needed help after my mom's surgery. It actually started with more work from the hotel, and a meandering bit of bird-grabbing on the way home.
Virginia Rail (88) - at a little marshy area between MP 109 and MP 110 on Highway 14.
Ruddy Duck (89) - one had been reported at Horsethief Lake. I pulled over to check on my way, and found a dozen!
Glaucous-winged Gull (90) - I stopped at Chamberlain Lake Rest Area, and had one fly by the river as I got a parting shot of the Columbia.
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| The Columbia from Chamberlain Lake Rest Area |
From here, I slipped out of the county, and back to Renton in time for an afternoon doctor's appointment.
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