December 17th - Christmas Bird Count Round 1: Trout Lake-Camas Prairie

The More the Merrier!

A sentence that no extrovert could disagree with, right? An important part of these silly trips I make is to try to step into these beautiful places and get to know them a little better. But. . . oh my goodness, Klickitat County! Here I was at the very tail end of the year - I had been to the beautiful places, I had found the good places to get breakfast, or burritos, or beer. But somehow, I'd spent not a single day out on the trails or side roads birding with anyone from the county. 

They're a funny bunch down there in Klickitat. I think it's the geography: 

No interstate highway in Washington is going to take you past Klickitat County on the way to anything. Maybe you are on your way to Oregon. . . but is that really safe? And any road leading to Klickitat is guarded by Mountains, sketchy roads, and places where you're probably not supposed to be. 

So, it would make some sense that Klickitatonians Klickatites Klicksters residents of Klickitat have developed a culture, an ecosystem, that doesn't rely on system inputs. It just cruises along, fueled by internal intermingling. 

The intermingling is significant! Bird lists in "The Klick", if you poke around on eBird, include a lot of shared lists. I even learned of Secret Societies of Klickitat Birders who get together regularly to explore the county, and other individuals who only bird. . . because they enjoy it! Heading out and studying birds without a care for posting lists, these people are like. . . lemurs in Madagascar. . .Sakoku-era Shoguns. Maybe Hobbits.

Nonetheless, somehow, I finally found a way in. Not just one, but two days in the Klick, birding and socializing with Klickitat birders on Christmas Bird Counts. *I* had a merry old time, and hope that the addition of a wet-sider was welcome in the end!

Stuart and Cathy

In this context, it's fun to do a brief introduction of Stuart and Cathy, my co-birders for the day. Both made a living off of various biological endeavors: hydrology, forestry, bird-banding, Western Gray Squirrel Surveys. . . they've been around, and have worked for or adjacent to many of the major government bodies that try to keep a little eye on our ecosystems and make sure they're healthy. 

Stuart was someone I knew about because I use eBird. A stroll through past years in Klickitat shows that he was likely the Klickitat County year list record holder many years running. It's interesting because most people in the state who keep lists. . .well, *most* use eBird, but most also report their lists to Washington Birder. You have some interesting exceptions - birders with thousands and thousands of lists from birding trips, with not a one of them on eBird. 

You also have folks like Stuart, who adds his observations to eBird to support citizen science but doesn't report his findings to Washington Birder. He's not alone in this regard! Not in Klickitat County. The greatest life list for the county from Washington Birder: 264 species. On eBird, there's a *year* list this year of 258 species. 

The notebook of a *good* observer

The worst part of all of this. The absolute worst part. I may be listed in Washington Birder as the most prolific single-year birder with my list in the high 180s once the year is done. 

I hope someone fills out a form this year and saves me that embarrassment. Stuart, incidentally, set a mark in the 190s many years back, and has found 265 different species in the county over the years. Getting to bird with someone who knows the county *that* well was a treat. 

Cathy is someone I knew from eBird - not for the lists with impressive numbers, but for the extremely detailed lists. Citizen science is not a sloppy endeavor for her. Detailed, accurate sightings with plenty of additional notes are the norm. And her passion - bird-banding - has let her see birds in neighboring Skamania County that (with *some* effort, because members of the Washington Ornithological Society didn't really know her) had never been recorded previously. 

So, I landed in quite a car. 

Owling?

They're pretty clear in any Christmas Bird Count. "Owling is not expected."

??????

Of course, after a night's stay with my Mom in Yakima, I zippittied my doo dah to Klickitat early. I had to do work before I got out the door, and just misunderestimated the time it would take to get to the spot on the BZ-Glenwood Highway where I was hoping to find Barred Owls. I arrived at the intersection with Laurel Road at about 7:45, with the sun already over the horizon. It was behind hills to the East, and socked in by a little fog, so I hopped out and tried anyway. No owls, but I did start to see the first stirrings of birds - a Common Raven, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and an American Robin. 

I would have stayed a little longer, but it wasn't dark, and it was like... 8 (o'clock and degrees), so I continued on my way to the Gilmer Valley. 

OH! That's what this place is called

I'd been up and down the BZ-Glenwood Highway a time or two over the course of the year. When I got to this area, I instantly recognized it, although I'd had no idea that the location was called Gilmer (on the map), or the Gilmer Valley (by Cathy and Stuart). It's a beautiful little stretch along this road - where it breaks open into wide open pastureland. 

On this particular day, we had full access to the fields. Stuart, who actually set up this particular count circle 15 years ago, had long ago made contact with this particular family, (one with a road named after them a little ways North at Conboy National Wildlife Refuge) who found some value in being able to track the bird species seen on their land in winter. As noted above, "the more the merrier!" Biodiversity in an ecosystem is generally a good sign of stability. 

We started at some of the stable areas near the barns and other buildings on the property. The easiest and earliest species were ones that even the landowner recognized as invasive species, Eurasian Collared-Doves and European Starlings. Picking through the Dark-eyed Juncos poking around in the mud, we came across a Slate-colored Junco. There are several subspecies for these sparrows, with the most common locally being Oregon Juncos, so this was a nice little surprise. 

TOSO far away

California Scrub-Jays were also in the mix, as well as American Crows and Common Ravens. We strolled up the road a little and found a few birds up away from the road. A juniper had not only an American Robin (singing a whisper song) but a Townsend's Solitaire. These birds are rare overwintering birds in the state and have a strong preference for junipers. This particular tree was full of juniper berries, which we saw the bird eating at short distances. Varied Thrushes added a third member of the thrush family to our count. 

Eventually we got close enough for great views

Juniper berries - solitaire food

One of many private roads 
we had access to

We had some excitement for a "different hawk" that the landowner had seen nearby. While we had hopes of a Rough-legged Hawk, we ended up with a Red-tailed Hawk - the more common large hawk found nearly anywhere. This may sound dismissive, but the reality is that Red-tailed Hawks are some of the most variable birds out there. This one was very lightly colored, with only a small number of darkly streaked feathers across its breast to identify it. 

As we birded, I had done some owl calls, and a short while later were rewarded with some brief but distinctive calls from a Barred Owl. This was my 185th species for the year - a nice addition in a year where I'd had very few species of owls!

We crossed the road and pulled over at a spot that they'd referred to as "the gut pile". When animals from the farm died, some parts of the carcasses were brought to a small pile near the bottom of a hill. On this particular day, the hill itself was pretty icy, so I was the only one venturing to the bottom. This was a nice enough stop, with a couple of woodpeckers added to the day list: Hairy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker. I found Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Brown Creeper, and Golden-crowned Kinglets at the bottom of the hill. 

Birding highlights of the day

Mount Adams with a cap - a pretty picture to distract you after I just told you I was going 
to give you birding highlights

We were not very far into our day. . . but had already hit *most* of our birding highlights for the day! Water was frozen over in so many places, trees were frosted, ground was covered by a thick layer of crunchy snow. Wild Turkeys were among the few birds that found a way to make use of the area - seen on a few different stops. Golden-crowned Sparrows were found at a few different stops, and another surprise, a single female Red-winged Blackbird, was found when we returned to our original spot. 

Birding highlights aside. . . 

I really wish I'd had this trip at the beginning of the year! "Bob and I had White-headed Woodpeckers here." "Wilson found a Great Gray Owl here." and so on and so on. As we circled the south end of Conboy National Wildlife Refuge, I learned so much about spots for birds, about trees (including some larches, and stories that ranged from Ponderosa Pines to Western Hemlocks), and about Christmas Bird Counts Past. 

We dug into Klickitat County a little bit. Bickleton - the really conservative town that still found a way to be welcoming to people passing through. Goldendale - the really conservative town that found ways to push out diversity. White Salmon - the little haven of liberals that snuck into the county. We talked about sheriffs, post office workers, and schools. Influential families, private lands, and birds - so much talk about birds. Although I teased Cathy a little, pretending that any new bird information would slip away from my brain like food off of DuPont Teflon, I really did pick up a lot from the two of them, from accipiter IDs to the timing of Lincoln Sparrow migration, to the expansion of Hutton Vireo habitat. 

Mount Hood with its own cap

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .

We did double back to our starting spot, where we added one more species to the list for the day - a single female Red-winged Blackbird. Not a big surprise at other times of the year, but it was a good bird for the day! We said our goodbyes, continued down the road. . . pointed out that I needed to get dropped off at my car. . . turned around successfully on a narrow winding road, caught a glimpse of a Western Gray Squirrel (the first I've seen one - most of the ones we see are the invaders from the East), and then dropped me off in my car. 

Bingen Society House

What a great find this was. I wish I'd known of it earlier, as it gave me a bed for the night for just about 40 bucks. The hotel has a spa, event space, and fancier rooms, but also has bunks at the affordable aforementioned rate. It was comfortable, and everything I needed for the night, especially given how comfy the common spaces were. It's set in the historic Bingen School, and they do make sure to have fun with the connections - even the keycards were in little sleeves with the words "Hall Pass."

I'm planning on hitting Skamania County next year, and this may be a place I stay on some of those trips! It's just across the river from Skamania, sitting at the far West end of Klickitat. 

I sat and poked at some work over a grilled cheese and soup, then sat in a common area and did a little reading before heading off to bed, ready to tackle the Lyle Christmas Count the next day.