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Week Sixty-Three, May 27-June 2, 2002

Sunday, June 2, 2002

Our two-day trip to Eastern Washington wrapped up this evening with a long and tiring drive down White Pass and back home, but we returned home happy. In all, Natalie and I and the rest of the group saw approximately 100 bird species and 14 butterfly species along with 395 miles of the state.

This morning we started with a trip to an area where a single Least Flycatcher was hanging out along Maloy Road, and after a short stop to save a Western Bluebird female that had fishing line wrapped around its leg and was hanging and struggling outside its nesting box - Natalie held the bird and worked the fishing line loose and I cut it away with my pocket knife, surely saving the bird's life - we stopped at the end of the gravel road and picked out the flycatcher in a line of trees. I managed to get the spotting scope on the bird long enough for a lot of people to get a close look, but in the process I couldn't get a photo. No matter. Even though this is a hard bird to find in Washington and there are just a couple dozen breeding pair of them in Eastern Washington, I was about to get another photo - the shot of the Boisduval's Blue butterfly above that we found while trying to locate a Yellow-Breasted Chat near Hardy Canyon.

I know that this trip was supposed to be focused on bird watching, but this afternoon it took a turn to butterfly watching for Natalie and me. While along the southern end of Clear Lake, back near White Pass again for the second Sunday in a row, I spotted a Satyr Anglewing flying in a grassy meadow that was highlighted by the sunshine. And while the rest of the group went off bird watching, I chased the butterfly, trying to get a photo. In the process I also saw my first-ever Sara's Orangetip, which I just missed getting a photo of when it flew away as I snapped a shot. We also saw what I think was a Great Spangled Fritillary along the edge of this same meadow, but I ran out of time to chase it and had to catch up with the birding group to finish our trip.

We did the last of our birding for the day at an elevation of 4,500 feet, walking through snow and adding a couple of more birds to our total number of species for the trip as we sought but didn't find the Williamson Sapsucker that are supposed to hang out along the shores of Leech Lake. I snapped the shot above of the lake with the snow still on the shoreline in spots to mark the end of a tiring but rewarding weekend.

Saturday, June 1, 2002

We were treated to great weather and a show of wildflowers on our bird watching route today, and at the end of the journey to Eastern Washington and the Wenas Basin area we watched a rare state bird - a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher - flitting between bushes in Hardy Canyon while a host of bird watchers from across the state stopped by to take in the scene and add another bird to their state list. A highlight of the walk up to Hardy Canyon for me was finding a hummingbird nest just off the trail along the tree line on the west side of the trail. I was walking and heard the hum of a hummingbird's wings above me, but when it abruptly ended I stopped and started searching the foliage for its landing place. Instead of a landing place, I found a nest, about 10 feet off the ground and just a few feet from the gravel road being trekked by all of the birders in search of the gnatcatcher.

I was lucky enough to have the Calliope Hummingbird come back to sit on her nest, both during the walk up the trail and again on the walk down, when I took the shot above using the digital camera and our Swift Nighthawk spotting scope.

Today's trip with the intermediate birding class from the Tahoma Audubon Society ended up netting us more than 80 species of birds, including a lot of first-timers for Natalie and I. Among the highlights, besides the gnatcatcher, were what appeared to be a Ferruginous Hawk along Highway 10 near the Teanaway and Yakima Rivers, a Hermit Thrush along the road to Gold Creek up at Snoqualmie Pass, a Pacific Slope Flycatcher in an unlikely spot along a creek on Untanum Road, and a Sage Thrasher singing up a storm along the same road as we climbed out of Ellensburg and over the ridge before dropping down to Wenas.

Also along the same road we came across the best butterfly display I have seen so far this year - dozens of butterflies and a handful of species along the road near a creek where I took the shot above of a trio of Hoffman's Checkerspot butterflies puddling in a damp section of the road side. We also saw Square-Spotted Blue butterflies in this spot, along with at least one other blue butterfly. Earlier in the day we saw hosts of Western Tiger Swallowtail, a coupe of Pale Swallowtail, and some Spring Azure. I have to come back to this area sometime next year just to spend time looking at and shooting photos of the wildflowers and butterflies.

We wrapped up our night with an attempt to see or hear owls above the campground where we set up the tent along the north fork of Wenas Creek. We drove the rugged road up the hillside and through a creek, then spent another hour or so trying to track down a Common Poorwill we heard calling nearby (it flew off as we approached the area) and trying to get owls to respond to the tape recorded calls that our trip leader Ken Brown was playing. After having no luck and watching the clear night sky fill with stars, we drove back to camp, exhausted...

Friday, May 31, 2002

I haven't been updating The Equinox Project much this week, and so today in a last ditch effort to get a weekday photo I stopped while biking over the pedestrian bridge over Highway 16 and snapped a photo of the Nootka Rose in full bloom along the freeway. It is an odd place to see nature, with traffic whisking past below, but even this planted piece of nature, given time, carves its own niche...

Monday, May 27, 2002

After the long day of driving and bird watching yesterday, we stayed home and worked on writing and other projects today. I did still get some bird watching in though, since I heard a bird that intrigued me while walking the dog this morning, and although I couldn't remember the call well enough to decide what it was without seeing it, I did get a glimpse of the Western Tananger singing in a tree at the end of our alley to help me make the connection before I was done walking. It feels good to know how much I am learning about birds, migration patterns, bird songs, and just about the world around me through writing this book and taking our current round of classes from the Tahoma Audubon Society. I really think I have learned more in the last year than in any single period since I finished my undergraduate college career in 1990...

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