A Quiet Fall - September 6th

The quiet fall has continued. My car was in the shop for nearly two months for a major repair, with my binoculars waiting inside. . . or so I thought. In early October, at long last the repairs were done, and the binoculars that had been in the car had gone missing. It's a rough thing. . . I shouldn't have left them in there. Outside of the missing binoculars the repair place had been extremely communicative, helpful, etc. To their credit, they are working now (in the middle of November) to get them replaced. 

But this explains why my September trip was made without binoculars! With my camera still also awaiting repairs, I made an optically challenged trip through the county in September. 

I started it off with a trip to visit a friend in Yakima, taking the day to pick up some birds along the way - a new species in Thurston County, and another in Lewis (my 175th! a Black Phoebe) along the way. We spent the evening watching the Mariners and catching up. He apologized in advance for an early rising time, fearing he'd wake me up with the clanking around at 4-5 in the morning. "Perfect!" I told him, knowing that bright and early is never a bad thing on trips like this. 

I made one more effort to find some Yakima birds on my way to Klickitat County, setting up near a retention pond in Mabton before sunrise. This, however, was not welcome in the end! "This is an active farm. . ." I was told by the property owner, and I had to simply move along. 

The Mabton-Bickleton Road was a new one for me. I'd been hoping to enter the county from as many different directions as possible, and this one seemed like a no-brainer. That's where I caught the sunrise:

One bird that I was hoping for in this corner of Klickitat was Gray Partridge. I was encouraged when a pair of them flew from the side of the road as I ascended. I was still a mile or so from entering Klickitat County, but they did add to my life list for Yakima, which had slowly creeped up during the year, now sitting at 199 species.

Another "Welcome to Klickitat County" sign. I think I've hit them all at this point? It's been a lot of enterings and leavings over the course of the year, and there are only so many ways in and out of the county! As large as it is, much of the northern border it shares with Yakima is reservation land. On the south side, the border is with Oregon. 

I drove it slow, keeping an eye out for Gray Partridge in particular, but also had it in my head that a Prairie Falcon might be possible. Those thoughts kept me occupied all the way in to one of my favorite little towns: Bickleton!

I had to stop in at Bickleton, because I had long been planning to bring a check or cash to pay my months-old lunch tab from the Bluebird Inn. Unfortunately, they were closed, but the cafe across the street happily took the check, and got it delivered later in the week. I sat here and got much-needed wifi, so I was able to sit down and get some work done as I had my breakfast. 

It was neat as always to strike up conversations with the locals. We got into a talk about partridge, and it was neat to hear the discussion One person had noted that they hadn't seen any. Another noted that the weather (plenty of rain during the year) had meant that there were some especially good areas where they were concentrated. "Try Pine Creek Road", he encouraged me, and so I did. 

This was a pretty little drive! In the end, it was not productive for any of my target birds, although it was fun to see a few Western and Mountain Bluebirds lingering around. 

I debated with myself on how to get down to the Columbia, and in the end decided to go with Hale Road, making my way over to Alderdale Road and the Carrot Ponds. My friend Kevin had told me that the Carrot Ponds would be a good stop. I did wonder what might have been possible with binoculars! That said, a few shorebirds (Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer) were seen and heard fairly close in, and there didn't seem to be much activity in the far end of the ponds. It was still neat to finally stop at them, and to see the orange bits of carrots floating around on one end of these manmade ponds!

From here, it was a long drive along the Columbia towards Lyle. I had a reservation at Domaine Pouillon to pick up some wine, taste some wine, and grab some wood. The wood was a bit of oak from the property, and was procured for use in a project I plan to poke at slowly over time: 

1) Get a mug from every county in the state.

2) Get a piece of wood from every county in the state.

3) Cut out the county shape from that piece of wood.

4.) Eventually put all of those pieces together, pop some screw hooks into them, and enjoy the fanciest mug-holding display ever. 

I've had this idea floating around for a while now but have been giving it some more attention lately. As I sit here in November, I have just returned from a fairly impromptu trip over to Mason County, where I was able to get some wood from Mark and Beth Biser over at Still Waters farm. They got me a few different pieces to work with, including some Lodgepole Pine from their property that was blessed with a little bit of Blue Stain. Apparently, there are pine beetles that leave their eggs in the wood, bringing a fungus with them that stains the wood blue! So at least one county is being cut out now. 

The oak made sense for Klickitat, and why not from a winery that I've been enjoying? We talked a good bit about birds, wine, wood, weather, and all that jazz before I hit the road. 

A Prairie Falcon seen along the drive on the Columbia was my 185th bird in Klickitat for the year. That. . . was two months ago, and I am still trying to get a hold of binoculars! Sad to say, the 200 birds I imagined for the year may not come, but we shall see. I think having exceeded 175 for the year, given all of the challenges that life sent my way this year, has been quite an accomplishment. And what's the worst-case scenario? I have to come back to Klickitat County sometime down the road? Sign me up!

Stay tuned! I will see if I've made my last trip to Klickitat for the year. I am hoping I have not, and will need to sort that question out in the context of holiday plans.