Hello Tweets,

Just returned from a
naturalist hike with my Mountaineers friends to Ginko Petrified Forest State Park at Vantage......Beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky. The group I brought over for the tour wasn't really aware of the park and the geological history surrounding the origins of the petrified forest.

We spied an OSPRY platform somewhere between Cle Elum and Ellensbug and it looked occupied. RED WING BLACKBIRDS staked out their territories on the cattails in roadside gullys. Saddly, I didn't see a single magpie....boo hoo hoo....

After visiting the interperative center overlooking the river, and soaking up the view we hit the road again and headed up to the trail of caged petrified trees. (My group though I was kidding when I told them the petrified trees were behind bars. I said it was because they were wild.)

Once on the trail we kept hearing a sparrow type bird song. And much to my surprise I actually SAW the little tweetie boid! It stayed put long enough for me to pull out my binocs to get a close up look! It was a sparrow of some sort, but very grey and it blended in quite nicely with the gray-greens of the spring sage.

Was this little tweetie a SAGE SPARROW?

We also heard what might have been a CHUKAR.....What ever it was it was quite noisy and very well concealed.

Back to the interpretive center at Ginko Petrified Forest......They're showing two newly produced videos on the geological history of Central Washington. Both videos are wonderfully produced and worth stopping for when you're passing through Vantage on Saturdays or Sundays.

Lydia



Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA/lydia at wizards.net
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