March 19th - Patchwork Birding

I like naming the posts. It's dumb, it's cute, it's fun, it's a burden. I'll tell you though, when I simply asked the googles for synonyms for hodgepodge (which had an early lead), I came across quite a pick-a-mix of possibilities. Dis and Dat. Mélange, mash-up, mess, and miscellany felt nice because of the M's for March. Salmagundi was a new one on me, as was farrago (a Scrabble word I'll tuck away). But patchwork was just right.

patchwork: a thing composed of many different elements so as to appear variegated.

Some days are pretty focused, or at least have a small number of . . . Idunno, elements isn't a bad word. But this one was full of little stops.

After a stay with my folks, my first stop was Brooks Memorial State Park. New county sign! It was the first time I'd entered the county this year over Satus Pass, so I pulled my camera out for a picture. 

Yeah, I forgot my camera battery. 

Folks. . . It's not the first time, and I'm sorry that I'm the kind of person who needs to do these things, but now, when I take the battery out, I leave the battery compartment open. This doesn't sound like the discovery of plutonium, even to me, but it's close enough for now. More pictures in the future! 

I still had the phone with me, though, so here we go: 

If you squint, you can totally read that it says "Klickitat County"

Buckle up! There's going to be lots of these pictures.

Brooks Memorial State Park

I stopped at Brooks, where I've camped in the past, and was a little disappointed to see that the park was closed until April 1st. There's certainly spots with similar habitat, but in my head, Brooks seems like the perfect place to explore, being so close to the county line coming from Yakima. Traffic was light, so I poked around the area right by the freeway for a while, letting my ears do most of the work. 

The entrance list ended up in double digits: Canada Goose, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Steller's Jay, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Pine Siskin, Fox Sparrow (new for the year! bird number 91 for the county this year), Dark-eyed Junco, and Song Sparrow. 

The weather was kind of neat. It wasn't too cold. Sprinkling a little. It seemed like the weather over the county was a bit of a patchwork at times as the day went along. 

Town House Cafe

Breakfast. Heck Yeah.

I'd dashed out the door without breakfast, so I stopped at the Town House Cafe to re-caffeinate over a breakfast sandwich. It also gave me a chance to look over some of my planned stops for the day. Pleasant service, decent food, and kind of a hopping place on a weekend morning. 

Breakfast and planning

It was fun to look back at this picture (note that this is from MARCH, and this blog post is coming in May...). I'd forgotten that it was bacon rather than my usual sausage. Forgotten what bird I was sketching in the notebook (not an uncommon thing for me to do, for a potential upcoming ID, or for a bird that puzzled me), and forgotten that this day was, in the end, a big old loop. Even seeing the plastic water cup puts me back there a little bit, the cafeteria tables, the upholstered seats - it isn't much of a picture by nearly any standards, but in retrospect, it's an honest and full capturing of a very pleasant moment.

Setting up camp

In the end, the loop wasn't exactly what I'd laid out in that notebook. I think I'd planned to head down 97 to the Columbia for. . . Lesser Goldfinches? I did need them for the year, but they are kind of a year-round bird in Klickitat, so I decided other things might be more urgent. I did want to secure my camping site for the evening, however. Especially with Brooks closed, I wasn't sure what my backup backup plan would be. 

For perspective - the red marker was my campsite

I hopped onto the Goldendale-Glenwood Highway, and kept my eyes peeled for new birds. It was pretty birdy, but just a lot of species I'd seen already for the year: Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, 8 billion American Robins, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Common Ravens. Very typical farmland fare. Finally, I reached a pond where I was able to find my first swallows of the year - Violet-green Swallows (92). 

A few miles out of Goldendale, it was time to turn north on Grayback Road. Much of the land in here is part of the Klickitat Wildlife Area, and there was an area designated for camping that I was hoping to grab. 

Evening Grosbeaks (93) were pretty vocal at the campground as I finally pulled in. The wind. The wind was also pretty vocal! In retrospect, there was a generous amount of optimism that went into setting up a tent on slightly wet ground on a windy day, but my excitement from having the whole spot to myself appears to have pushed away and doubts or confusion. 

Hey buddy... how are those stakes looking?

Even in this picture. . . knowing me, I knew in the back of my head that the stakes were going to come out, and that the tent was going to go for a ride. Not including the stakes in the picture meant that the problem no longer existed! This makes perfect sense to me even now. 

I didn't stay very long at the campsite, as I had a few stops to make!

Klickitat Canyon

I decided to head down Klickitat Canyon Road to make an 11:00 reservation at Domaine Pouillon. I'd signed up for the winery's membership for the year, and there was a release party during the weekend. So, it was down the canyon, occasionally stopping and listening for chickadees or creepers. . . but the timing and kind of low possibility of new birds mostly meant just driving down the canyon. 

Once I hit Lyle, I turned up Old Highway 8 and then up Lyle-Snowden Road towards the winery. One of the more interesting sightings (although not new for the year) was a pair of Acorn Woodpeckers along the road. These birds were once a little tougher to find, but have been expanding their range of late. It's up for debate whether it means that all of these areas around the original Acorn Woodpecker granaries are suddenly becoming better habitat, or if it means that the original habitat isn't everything it used to be, forcing the birds outward. That's something I want to learn more about as the year goes along. 

The stop was pleasant - a little live music, a little food, a little wine. It was also a little cold! But that's to be expected, and at least the rain and wind didn't crash the party. Typical of March, the weather changed with time, and changed as I drove from one place to another throughout the day. 

On the way back to Highway 14, I passed Klickitat Canyon Winery as well, and thought I'd at least peek in and see if they were open for a tasting or selling any of their other products. They were indeed open, so I found parking and popped in to look around. The young man at the counter actually remembered me from February when I had passed through, and we actually spent a little time talking about birds. 

Interesting place! They are connected to a larger organic farm program called WWOOF, which allows people to learn organic farming practices while living on organic farms. Sounds like a lovely program, and a fun way to learn about the unique challenges that people face in trying to produce food without all of the herbicides, pesticides, etc. 

I passed on a tasting, and actually talked to the young man about why. I had tried a Klickitat Canyon wine back in January, purchased from the Lyle grocery. And. . . there was (to me) an odd taste in the background that wasn't all that pleasant. We both thought it a good idea to give the wines a chance, and I did end up tasting splashes of a couple others. . . and again for me, there was still that odd taste that I couldn't quite place. Now, that said. . . I know they are selling wines here, and are doing fine! Different people have different tastes, and in this case especially, there might be a lot of value for some people just to have an organic wine available! They had a pretty wide selection of both wines and vinegars, so I would still recommend making a stop, especially if you are an organically-minded consumer. 

Vinegars - Klickitat Canyon Winery

Bushtit! (94)  These birds can be tough in different parts of Eastern Washington, so I was happy to have a flock pass right through the parking lot as I was departing. 

More patches

From here, a few stops were made, and a few birds were found. 

Locke Lake, along Highway 14 held a large flock of American Wigeon, and a single male Eurasian Wigeon (95). 

Bingen Pond, a quick stop where I got to watch a Turkey Vulture (96) fly overhead. 

Nestor Peak

This stop was a fun one. I turned north from White Salmon and took the highway towards Trout Lake. There is a turnoff that takes you West towards Nestor Peak Road, where Hutton's Vireo has been found over the last few years. THIS is why I do these trips. :) Absolutely no reason to head off and explore places like this unless you've got some other purpose, and a code 4 bird certainly counts as a purpose. 

I got out of the car right around where people had pinned a cluster of Hutton's Vireo sightings. Then I got back in as the rain suddenly decided to come crashing down. 

before

after

If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes! As I was walking the roads, someone pulled over and asked . . . that question, "Are you lost?"  "Nope! Just birdwatching." "Did you know that this is private property?" I started with my apology and was cut off. "No, not where you are. But over here." She pointed down towards a driveway. "You can head down there and look for birds too if you want!"

I'm not expecting everywhere and everyone to be so accommodating, but it was very warm and welcome. As it turns out, it also helped, as I got to first hear, and then see, a Hutton's Vireo (97). Definitely a treat for the East side of the Cascades! 

Conboy Lake

Conboy Lake is a wildlife refuge near Trout Lake - tucked up in the Northwest corner of Klickitat County. In addition to waterfowl, I had my hopes up for Sandhill Cranes, woodpeckers, and other Ponderosa Pine residents. 

The first stop was in the pines. They have some areas of the refuge that are subject to controlled burns (a good practice that we needed more like. . . 20 years ago), and offer good open Ponderosa habitat. I pulled off and walked one of the trails leading away from an arterial. All three nuthatches (Red-breasted, White-breasted, and Pygmy) were found along the way, along with Hairy Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers, but nothing new for the year. It was pretty quiet, all in all!

I continued inward to the visitor center parking, spying a Say's Phoebe (98) sallying off of a bit of fence. A few trails spidered out from the parking area. I grabbed one that meandered through open and lightly forested areas, and along the edge of large, flooded fields.

The flooded fields brought me one more species for the year. Sandhill Cranes (99). It was fun to watch and listen to them - long-legged and crazy-sounding as they are. 

Dude, where's my tent? 

Wow, who would steal a tent? And yet, as I arrived at Grayback Road, and got back to my site, there my tent was not. I looked for footprints, thought suspiciously about the cars I'd passed, but just chalked it up to bad luck, and resigned myself to sleeping in my car. 

I fired up my little stove and had a can of soup. After cleaning up a little, I decided to stroll up the beginning of the trail I'd be taking the next day up Grayback Mountain. 

lol

What did we all learn about tent stakes in wet ground on a windy day, class? 

Although, as noted, I could see how this happened, it was still an impressive distance. The tent and rainfly had been relocated a few hundred feet up the trail by the wind. Everything was intact, it was just. . . relocated. I lugged the tent back and made better efforts to secure it. Nonetheless, I went to bed fully considering how I'd handle lost stakes in the middle of the night. 

As I drifted off to sleep, I heard some noises that I could ONLY believe to have come from a Northern Goshawk. You know what, dear reader. I'll count it. At least until the next post. I want you to have a picture of me going to bed with a hundred species in the bag, including a code 3 Northern Goshawk, and tent stakes that were still in the ground. 

I was pretty content. Why spoil this? :D But as soon as you've fully enjoyed this blissful contentedness, click that "Newer Post" button and read on.