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Week Seventy-nine, Sept. 16-22, 2002

Sunday, September 22, 2002

After another odd night of camping in which a siren kept going off near the park around 4 a.m. and kept waking us up last night, we were back on the road and heading south this morning for a drive up into the heart of the Blue Mountains. This time we followed the Tucannon River up into the mountains along a great valley that was travelled by Lewis and Clark when their expedition to the Pacific Ocean went through the area nearly 200 years ago. We didn't have any hardships at all by comparison as we motored up into the woods and found a few bird species and a lot of late season butterflies - California Tortoiseshell, a frittilary and a crescent among others - along the shores of the creek and river. This is going to be a great area to write about!

The second half of the day was our long haul of driving, as we cut up across the Palouse country and then further east to explore Wawawai Canyon that cuts down to the Snake River near Pullman before making the long drive all of the way home in about six hours flat. We did stop for gas in Othello and to try and see the Burrowing Owl along Dodson Road on our way home, but once again we struck out on the owl. As Natalie said tonight, maybe we are only allowed one owl per trip...

Saturday, September 21, 2002

Happy Equinox!

Natalie and I ventured to Eastern Washington today on the start of another of our long swings into SE Washington. This time we went through the Yakima area en-route to the Hanford Reach across from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and then down a winding highway to spend the night tonight at Lyons Ferry State Park on the Snake River. We saw some great scenery and one new bird along the way.

The day time highlights of our trip took place on the Wahluke Slope Wildlife Area, which is part of the Hanford Reach, where we encountered small flocks of Horned Lark as well as our first Grasshopper Sparrow of the year in the sagebrush country at the base of Saddle Mountain. I took the shot above from the end of the road heading east along the top of Saddle Mountain, looking south across the sagebrush and canyons to the Columbia River and the Hanford Reach in the distance.

Once we drove down to the Columbia River at the White Bluffs Boat Launch we were checking for birds along the shore when Natalie spotted what looks like a dense nest in a small tree alongside the river in the photo above. In fact it was a Porcupine nestled in the tree, and we went down the embankment and close enough for the porcupine to get a bit agitated and show us its quills as we snapped photos in what was really bad light around 4:30 p.m.

We had to make good time from the Hanford Reach to get to Lyons Ferry State Park before it was completely dark, but when we pulled into the park it was still dust and light enough for us to see a Great Horned Owl sitting on top of a sign inside the park, not more than 20 feet from where we sat with the car running as we tried to decide where we should camp for the night.

All in all we drove more than 300 miles today while checking out two new birding sites for Birding Washington. But there is much more ahead tomorrow...

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