Hi Tweeters:
Since Yakima area seems to be much in our postings these last few days,
I'll tell of our experience on the Skyline Rim trail, Friday, Saturday
and Sunday.

One young seven-year-old child surprised and made whiney by the initial
long uphill grade, and two exasperated parents carrying heavy backpacks
started up the ravine off of Buffalo Road in Selah on Friday about 1
p.m. (We had forgotten rule # 1 of outdoor adventure with kids: always
remind them beforehand that the exciting, perfect trip they have
fantasized will have difficult and challenging moments.)

Fortunately, we were all distracted from our initial discomfort by a
hovering kestrel and more wildflowers than "you can shake a stick at."
(Dad demonstrates by shaking his walking stick.)

We made it to the top for the great view of Rosa Dam just as a two-mile
long train crossed the bridge. After setting up camp not too far down
the trail, we saw white-crowned sparrows, spotted towhees, chukars,
robins. We also identified lots of flowers, including fern-leaved
desert-parsley and narrow-leaved desert-parsley, purple lupine, balsam
root and sagebrush violet. Meadowlark song was our constant companion
all three days.

The weather that day and the next were near perfect for backpacking. As
we chugged down to Rosa Creek, we saw "enough flowers for everyone in
the world to have one," according to the child, and I don't doubt it a
bit. It was a bit ironic that soon after spotting a white flower called
death-camas, I also spotted a rattlesnake sunning itself in the trail.
It moved sluggishly to the other side of the rock, and we skirted it,
then took a good looks with the binocs. It a lovely earth-colored
counterpoint to all the colorful flowers. We also saw some common
camas, the root of which was a food staple to original inhabitants of
the area.

The abundance of yellow composites and purple lupine and pink phlox was
overwhelming.

After a mile or two of steep downhill (I was wondering the whole way how
I was going to haul my backpack back up, and how the young child was
going to deal with such a steep prolonged climb...), we arrived at Rosa
Creek and had lunch with a man who said he hardly ever sees anyone on
this trail - he runs it twice a month from Ellensburg to Selah. Just as
he expressed surprise at seeing us, about twenty horses and riders
appeared from the north and his jaw really dropped.

We wandered up Rosa Creek looking for a camp site, and found what looked
to me like a red-tail nest in a cottonwood. There were about three
red-tails hanging around, being harassed by kestrels and other birds,
but I never saw any approach the nest. Perhaps they were fledged from
that nest? They made a lot of noise, screaming as the kestrels
dive-bombed them, and the child got really excited. "I've heard that
sound in movies! It's wildlife! In its real habitat!" Her excitement
was worth every minute of the next day's agony. We also saw starlings,
kingfisher, robins, kinglets, red-wings, and others. (I forgot to bring
anything to write with, so no list.) The area up Rosa Creek has a series
of amazing beaver ponds, and there were a few puddle ducks on them. We
went to the beaver lodge at dusk, and saw swimming toward us was what my
daughter insists was a beaver, but it seemed smaller than a beaver to
me. (About 14 inches long, with rounded ears. Any guesses?)

At that campsite we also taught her to identify cattails, mint, and
horsetail (equisetim). It rained most of the night, but let up in the
morning.

We had planned to stay Sunday night, but the increasingly rotten weather
and one family member's escalating cold (who turned on the faucet in her
nose?), made us turn tail and head up back up the "hill." Only looking
at flowers and stopping for food about every ten minutes got us to the
top, three hours later. By then, all the M&M's were picked out of the
gorp. (We got to see birds from above: tree swallows fighting over a
white feather below us and crows soaring in the ridge-wind below us --
momentary distractions from our pain.)

At the top, and headed back toward Rosa Dam overlook, we saw a most
curious site. We flushed two chukars, and at our feet, several yards
from where they flushed, we found an string of three undeveloped eggs.
They were attached like uncut sausages, and two were small, about the
size of lima beans, and one was chicken egg sized, but soft, no shell.
Inside was a large yoke. So, today I looked in a resource book that
mentions bird reproductive biology, trying to figure out why those
unfinished eggs were expelled. And also when the shell hardens on an
egg. I didn't find much.

Arrived at our car about five; our last bird of the trip was the
hovering kestrel we'd seen as we started. Meadowlarks sang as we drove
out of sight.

Kristi Streiffert
Coulee Dam, WA