December 18th - Christmas Bird Count Round 2: Lyle-Hood River

Klickitat River

Bingen Society House

I'll say again. What an affordable, clean, pleasant stay this was. 7 AM coffee, and a little breakfast. On my trips, I'm normally flying out the door as the sun rises, but. . . with 185 birds pocketed for the year, and a pretty fixed area for the Christmas Bird Count, I figured the potential of squeezing out some new birds was pretty low. 

I got my things packed up, and then got a call from John, "Hi Tim. . . are you going to be here soon. . . ?" I realized I'd mixed the meeting times for Saturday and Sunday. "Be there in 20!" I promised, still sipping coffee. I think I ended up getting from Bingen to Lyle about 15 minutes later - a distance that I'd not had dialed in quite so well before this last day in the county. 

Klickitat Balfour Trail

Youcanstartwiththetrailheadacrossthestr.....partwheretheroadtakesyoudowntotheriv...ndIhadgoldeneaglesatthetreedoyouseethattre....

I nodded, and to be fair, I really did hold onto a lot of what John passed to me quickly after I arrived. There are times like this where I am like a full glass of water, and someone giving me more information is just pouring water that will not be in that glass for long. But there are a fair number of things and places and place names that I'd put together in my head over the course of a year, so I felt like I kind of knew what part of our sector I would be taking solo once John and his wife Mary departed. 

We had an interesting task - birding the Klickitat River for about 8 miles above the mouth. Interestingly, and maybe frustratingly, this did not include the mouth itself. Some of the best birds of the year in the county have shown up at the mouth of the Klickitat, although both John and I were without spotting scopes. Close up birds seemed like they would be more our speed.

My first birds out of the gate at the Klickitat Balfour trailhead were Lesser Goldfinches. There have been some of these showing up regularly in spots in King County where I live. With those observations have come some nice photos and even videos of the birds, sometimes alongside the more common American Goldfinches. That said... I still don't have enough experience with the two species to be quite so confident.

Red-tailed Hawk

But I'll tell you - drop two or three dozen of the Lessers drop into a bush right in front of me, giving their distinctive "tweeyoo" call. I had a few failed photo attempts, as it was still not all that light out, but did get a good one eventually.

It was an interesting woodpecker day! An interesting woodpecker year for the area, honestly. Northern Flickers were everywhere. They're never really uncommon, but the numbers were a bit higher on the count. Acorn Woodpeckers are kind of a brag for this particular CBC. In recent years, these birds have moved from a single granary tree to a wider area. I've probably seen them in 3-4 different locations over the course of the year and found two during my morning walk. Finally, Lewis's Woodpeckers were notably absent. Not a great acorn crop or something along those lines, so they exited the area for the winter.

I had two birds I was really hoping to see here: Barrow's Goldeneye and Lincoln's Sparrow. As I made it up the hill a little bit from the parking, things opened up a little in the direction of the river. There were some well-beaten trails running across fields towards the river, so I followed them down. I'd missed this on previous visits and was happy to find that this brought me right to a little cove full of 60 Mallards, a dozen or so American Wigeon, and some ever-present domestic Graylag Geese.

I swear there were sparrows here

No Barrow's on the river, so I climbed my way back up, stopping at most of the blackberry brambles to give a quick pish for sparrows. I did get a pair of Golden-crowned, and a few Song Sparrows, but the numbers were pretty low! At one point I excitedly followed what I thought could be a Fox Sparrow, only to find . . . a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Good laugh at myself over that one. And not my last laugh of the day. 

A bend in the trail took me up the hill to meet up with Old Highway 8, and then to the upper parking area. From there, I met the Lesser Goldfinches once more, and then finally found a blackberry bramble with some new birds for the morning, a White-crowned Sparrow, and a Lincoln's Sparrow. The latter was new for the year - my 186th species in the county for the year.

I was pretty happy to get a good look at the Lincoln's. Even if it didn't stay up for a pic - they're just such pretty birds. I was musing that they might be the sharpest looking sparrow, in my opinion. But there may be others that are close. Like maybe Sagebrush Sparrow? Regardless, it was a nice moment enjoying a new year bird in December.

Soon after I was back in the car. 

Klickitat River Trail

I crossed back over to the West side of the Klickitat River and started up the road. I wasn't 100 percent on where to stop, but I was a solid 79 percent, and figured I could just keep an eye on the side of the road for any possible turnoffs that would bring me closer to the river. It wasn't too far when I found one - a little spur that led all the way down to the river. I recalled John describing the potentially bad conditions, but it was pretty clear, and not all that long. 

At the river itself, I quickly found a mix of Common and Barrow's Goldeneyes (187!). They flew fairly quickly, which was a bummer, as it was a nice opportunity to see the two species side by side. Viewing them from behind first, I could tell I had both species of males by the coloring on the back. Barrows has Black. They both have black, of course, but Barrow's has just a little more. The facial markings are the easier way to sort them out, but . . . as was the case today, these birds always seem to be on the run!

Come baaaack!

From this little parking area down by the river, I was able to walk back up towards the road and catch the Klickitat River Trail. I wasn't sure how far up I should walk it, but I wanted the steps! This took me past some churps that I thought might be Varied Thrushes. A little patience showed them to be Hermit Thrushes, and one gave me pretty good looks! Shortly after this, I got a surprise as a flock of about 90 Oregon Juncos passed through the trees, headed south to the mouth of the river.

About 90?? On a normal day, why make such a statement? But this was, after all, the Christmas Bird Count! Every bird seen during the day is tallied as carefully as possible, helping us track species over time. Generally speaking, winter is the best time for this, because the birds are neither migrating (spring, fall) nor nesting (summer). So, what started with 1,2,3,4....gradually changed into 45,50,55 as it became more and more apparent that this was a flocking lot of juncos!

Farther up, and I stopped, hearing odd noises. It took a second to recognize it as fishing that I was hearing! This was a spot on the Klickitat where native fishing was allowed, and about a dozen people were out that day. 

This is where I had a chance to get a better look at some Barrow's Goldeneyes. There were about a dozen of them on the river, and they weren't flying away at the first sight of me. It took a few minutes to realize that they were largely hemmed in by the groups of people fishing on both sides. I snapped some pictures, and then had a few more rounds of I-sometimes-forget-what-birds-sound-like. My first was a calling Kestrel that I thought sounded great for Prairie Falcon, until I listened to my recording later. Even worse was the American Dipper song that I could only place as a Rock Wren. 

The latter one, I can kind of defend. American Dippers prefer fast-moving water. Fast-moving water is loud. It's hard to hear dippers sing. But at this odd little spot, the water was not moving all that fast. This had me less ready to hear a dipper, and it also meant that I could hear more of the song than I ever really had before. Not just the loud ringing "cheer cheer cheer" but some of the other varied calls as it cycled through its repertoire. I just sat there and scanned the rocks on the far side of the river for the Rock Wren and never found it! Again, a recording saved the day once I had a chance to hop on my laptop.

This recording and sorting out of observations actually happened at the little cafe in Lyle. One more round of eggs, sausage, and hash browns there. I actually did need a fresh cup or two of coffee. This got me warmed up and ready to tackle a piece of the area that I mistakenly thought had been assigned to me.

Barrow's Goldeneyes

Fisher Hill Road

I got to this junction, where the trail crosses the river, and Fisher Hill Road also heads west off of the main road to .. OH, I just now as I typed this connected the dots. Fisher Hill Road cuts past Appleton, goes past Panickanic (sp?) Road, and eventually hits the Conboy NWR area. I'd been on it a couple of times during the year, but never this far down. 

It was a bit after noon now, and the birds were getting quieter and quieter. I did come across another smaller flock of Juncos. This time, when I heard them deep in the trees off of the trail, I pished a little bit. Right as I did so, an oak leaf came flying through the air to a branch closer to me. I laughed that off, but then, when I pished again, the leaf came even closer. . . 

. . .

There had been so many times where I'd mistaken oak leaves for birds during this walk. A flock of oak leaves dropping down to feed in the snow; an oak leaf soaring across an open field. But were these mistakes? The response from the oak leaf when I pished. . . I mean, you don't have to be a scientist to explain that, right? Later at dinner, I did ask about whether Klickitat birders counted oak leaves in their species lists. They seemed hesitant to admit it. . . but Klickitat birders play their cards close to the vest, I think. I'm telling you though: oak leaves.

The rapids around here were quite beautiful, and I was curious about the different fishery operations. A search once I got home told me that this stretch is one of the places where dipnetting is allowed for Native anglers. 

Another dipper. . .a Black-billed Magpie on the ridge. . . and a lot of quiet. I didn't head too far up the trail before I decided to call it a day on this stretch. Back out on the road, not knowing how far down John and Mary had birded, I made a few stops trying to add to our count for the day. 

One stop was a little more optimism than wisdom. I saw a busy feeder at the side of the road, and a wide bit of gravel near the house. There was a "no parking" sign. Now. . . I really don't want to be that birder out there, one that disregards signage like that. In my head, I thought a couple of things: I'm not parking, I'm stopping. . . someone who loves birds enough to put a feeder out will be excited to hear about the Christmas Bird Count. . . these things were not true. The homeowner was friendly but firm, and I got headed back towards Lyle. 

Last Call!!

Dinner would be in Bingen, so I decided to make a stop around 2:30 at Bingen Pond. It's just such a good spot, that it made sense to make a visit, even though I wasn't following up on any particular sighting. 

The ducks on the pond all looked pretty familiar, so I peeked out towards the Columbia, and found my last Klickitat bird for the year.

Red-breasted Merganser (188)

Crappy shot, but I'd discussed this with Cathy on Saturday. She'd asked at one point, "Do you want to go back for a better shot?" I just laughed and explained that good photos would set the bar higher, "And then it's just work, work, work!" This was a shot that I was happy to have at all - the duck was diving pretty actively, and I was kind of shooting blind and crossing my fingers. Pencil thin bill, classy mohawk, and no signs of distinct white coloring on the chin or neck. I was happy when I heard that Cathy was able to follow up and find it the next day - a new county bird for her, which is certainly a rarer thing for her!

Ayutlense

There was an open invitation to meet at this Mexican restaurant in Bingen for a post-count dinner. No pics from dinner! It really is a shame, because people were pretty lit up from the day. Yes, it was largely quiet for birds, but a day of birding always means a few good stories. Many people got to reconnect or put new faces to old names. We ended by tallying our count for the day. With only the people who could make it, we hit 99 species, and I'm certain we added a digit to that once everything rolled in.

I think I've used this expression before, but I will again - what a treat to have that time with such neat people. 

One bit of excitement was some scrutinizing of a photo of a blackbird. We confirmed that a Tricolored Blackbird was relocated at a feeder near Dallesport. Very nice count day bird. 

"Well. . . there's time! Are you going to chase it?"

I chuckled then and am chuckling even now as I type this. "It's. . .not what I do." I explained. 

Exit

People eventually trickled out for the night, as did I. The sun was down on December 18th, and my Klickitat year was complete. 188 species for the year, and a life list up to 195 species. This despite a few bumps along the way - I was pretty content. It really is an amazing place. I hope that a read through this blog makes that clear, if only through clumsy photos, and rambling words. 

Happy birding, everyone, and best wishes in the new year!