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Week Sixty-Five, June 10-16, 2002

Sunday, June 16, 2002

Although today was centered around bird watching, it was the overwhelming number of butterflies that drew my attention. We drove north from Wilbur, through the farm fields before dropping down to Roosevelt Lake - formerly known as the Columbia River before it was converted into a series of lakes by the huge number of dams - and then along the gravel roads on the east shore of the Sanpoil River as we headed north through the Colville Indian Reservation. Our birding target - the American Redstart - finally showed itself after we had driven miles along the rough gravel roads along the river. Our trip leader Ken had been playing the tape at each stop, trying to draw out one of the birds, but at the winning stop both of us heard a real bird doing the familiar call in the riparian area on the roadside.

Besides the American Redstart, we also had good looks at a Yellow Chat and a Gray Catbird along the river. But we also saw a lot of butterflies - Western Tiger Swallowtail, Pale Swallowtail, a possible Indra Swallowtail, and an amazing number of blue butterflies and Lorquin's Admirals. I include a shot of one of the Lourquin's above.

The shot of the puddling Boisduval's Blue butterflies above was taken along the second leg of our trip - up Gold Creek Road from Highway 21 and over a high pass before dropping into the damp downhill to the Aeneas Valley. There were butterflies everywhere along this road - including more Mourning Cloaks than I have seen in one area.

We also saw the Oreas Anglewing in the photo above along this same stretch of road, as well as a Chryxus Arctic - something that would be really hard to see anywhere here on the West side of the Cascade Mountains. One of the hardest parts of this day was driving past so many great butterflies.

Our bird watching ended on a great note tonight though. At the end of the Aeneas Valley we watched Bobolink in full breeding plumage, Red-napped Sapsucker, and a lot of Snipe - one standing and calling from the top of a 20-foot tall tree snag. Later in the evening, after setting up in Tonasket at the worst hotel we have seen in the last few years of book research, we drove up to the town of Havilah in the heart of the Okanogan Highlands to try and see owls. We suceeded, calling in a Barred Owl alongside a road deep in the dark woods. It was a great end to a day full of more birding and less driving than yesterday.

Saturday, June 15, 2002

Our three-day trip in Eastern Washington had us return to the hot weather today. We left early this morning before meeting the rest of the group of 17 people up at Snoqualmie Pass and then making the run over to Vantage to see a Sage Sparrow and Sage Thrasher in the Quilomene Wildlife Area along the Old Vantage Highway. As the temperatures rose we headed south along the Columbia River to see Common Nighthawks hunting and chasing each other near the Wanapum Dam, and later we found a bright Lark Sparrow pretty close to the place where the John Wayne Pioneer Trail - the same trail I biked two years ago with Jason and that I wrote about in the second edition of Mountain Bike America: Washington - crosses the road.

That was just the start of the hot weather, as later in the afternoon when we reached the town of Ephrata, and found a fairly rare Common Grackle in a residential neighborhood, the temperature on the bank reader board as we drove through town said it was 94 degrees. This is a bit hot with four people in the car and no air conditioning.

As it is typical on the first day of one of these three-day trips to Eastern Washington, much of today was devoted to driving. We had to cover the mileage from the west side of the mountains and across much of Central Washington before we could reach our destination in the tiny town of Wilbur tonight. But along the way we did have another great stop, this time along the bluff that overlooks Wilson Creek. I took the photo of a couple of people from our Tahoma Audubon Society class as they scanned the wetlands of Wilson Creek below. From this vantage point we saw Black-necked Stilt, Wilson's Phalarope, a couple of Avocet and a host of Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds among other birds in the reeds and flooded fields below. Natalie and I even got our first good look this year at a Canyon Wren along the road about 100 yards from where I took this photo.

It feels good to be back in Eastern Washington, despite the heat. It is great to get to learn more about this part of the state - both its small towns and people as well as the birds and habitats that are unlike what can be found on our wetter side of the state. My only big frustration today is fighting the urge to stop bird watching and to get photos of some of the butterflies we are seeing along the way. Mostly we saw Western Tiger Swallowtail and Pale Swallowtail, but there were at least two species that I didn't have the time to identify at Quilomene, and another on the bluff along Wilson Creek. Between the need to stay focused on birding and the fact that the winds were blowing hard enough to make it hard to find butterflies sitting on the plants where I could get photos...

Friday, June 14, 2002

There was little time today for wandering about outside. Between work and getting ready for our three-day bird watching trip that starts with a 6 a.m. departure tomorrow morning, it has been a busy day. The payoff is coming though. This should be a fun, if a bit hot and miserable weekend in Eastern Washington...

Thursday, June 13, 2002

On the heels of a 92 degree day here - probably the hottest day in a couple of years - things started to get interesting around 4 p.m. when I realized that the caterpillar we gathered last weekend on our butterfly trip had gone into its "J" form, hanging from a Nettle leaf in preparation for forming the chrysalis and transforming into a butterfly. Then at 6 p.m. I was out filling the bird feeders and an out-of-place black-and-orange butterfly flew past me - it couldn't be anything except a Monarch. I was excited to see the Monarch, the first I have ever seen in our yard, but also skeptical since Monarchs are not normal in Western Washington. Most likely, this butterfly was released from a local school that, like many schools, raised Monarchs and released them without considering that they cannot stay alive here.

We had to rush away from home right after I was watching the Monarch, and so I didn't get a chance to take a photo to document the butterfly. But when we returned home from our Western Pond Turtle monitoring shift we were treated to another surprise. The caterpillar that had been in a "J" before we left had transformed over three hours time into its chrysalis - one step away from becoming a Satyr Anglewing. Watching this butterfly emerge in the coming days should be interesting!

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Natalie took the caterpillar that we have been raising on nettles out of its container tonight to go outside and shoot some photos of the butterfly-to-be. We gathered this caterpillar of what should be a Satyr Anglewing butterfly from a roadside near Hood Canal while out last weekend on our butterfly field trip, and it has been growing rapidly while munching the nettle leaves.

Monday, June 10, 2002

I didn't have nearly enough time to spend outside today, but in between working and cleaning up around the house I still managed to have a great nature day. This evening I noticed the first Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly of the year in our yard. I have been seeing these butterflies and many others in our trips around the state recently, but this is the first butterfly other than the Cabbage White that I have seen in our yard this year.

Why so few butterflies so far? The answer is simple: The new next door neighbors. When Warren and Elsie were our neighbors, they would let the bright pink and purple flowers (that we have never been able to identify) go into full bloom on the north side of the house, and those flowers were butterfly and hummingbird magnets. But Warren died a year ago and Elsie sold the house, and now the new neighbors have used a combination of herbicides and a weed eater to kill any plants growing in the gravel along the north side of their house. This is one of the major reasons that Natalie and I want to shift to doing more butterfly gardening. We were lucky and could be lazy and still see some great butterflies in the past, but now we are not the same kind of destination.

Besides the butterflies, tonight we had a partial solar eclipse that obscured more than half of the sun, and a few hours later one of the prettiest sunsets of the summer was enough to get me out on the roof to snap the photo above. It has just been a beautiful day here in the Pacific Northwest!

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