Subject: Leavenworth - Chelan County
Date: Jun 23 14:45:42 2000
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

I took a couple days off (while Marty was working....teaching a farm
planning class...) to go over to Leavenworth, and squeezed a little
birding in. Spent Wednesday in town, and Thursday we drove up
Icicle Creek and hiked the forest trails

Got a late-morning, after breakfast, walk in with the kids in the river
park right in Leavenworth, on Wednesday morning. A nature trail
crosses to Blackbird Island and follows along the Wenatchee River
through the riparian woods. Pretty nice walk, and you'd hardly know
that there was a faux-Bavarian town 1/8 mile away! In the early p.m.,
we went up to the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery on lower
Icicle Creek. Pretty late for much birding, but there were lots of
Carson-stock spring chinook returning to the hatchery ponds!

On Thursday, we went up Icicle Creek into the mixed pine-fir-spruce
forest at Chatter Creek, and hiked the view trail to Boggy Creek, then
back down the canyon through the pine-fir-redcedar forest along
Icicle Creek to the parking lot. The US Forest Service is still requiring
a parking fee to hike the trails along here, but otherwise it was a nice
walk (I've never been in favor of charging people for non-consumptive
use of public lands....). Ate lunch at Rock Island Campground (not too
many mosquitos), where the USFS Campground Host had hummingbird
feeders and a tube of sunflower seed set up - then headed back to the
Puget Sound country. Nice to be back in the pine forest, even if for
only a couple of days!

We saw:

Canada Goose - B.c. moffitti - lots of goslings
Wood Duck - hen with ducklings of 2 ages....
Mallard - with ducklings
Spotted Sandpiper - Wenatchee River at Blackbird Is
Killdeer - Fish Hatchery
Red-tailed Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Belted Kingfisher - lots at Blackbird Is
Rufous Hummingbird - Rock Island Cmpgd
Black-chinned Hummingbird - Chatter Cr
Calliope Hummingbird - Chatter Cr
Vaux' Swift
Pileated Woodpecker - only saw fresh workings in a Cedar
along Icicle Creek, with carpenter ants still
swarming out of the excavation!
Red-shafted Flicker
Hairy Woodpecker - Chatter Cr
N Rough-winged Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Pacific-slope Western Flycatcher - Chatter Cr
W Wood Pewee - Leavenworth
Western Tanager
Raven
Crow
Robin
Townsend's Solitaire - Rock Is Campground
Swainson's Thrush
Western Bluebird - Fish Hatchery
Dipper - Icicle Creek
Cedar Waxwing
Winter Wren - Chatter Cr
House Wren - Leavenworth
Canyon Wren - calling in Icicle Cr canyon
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee - Leavenworth
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Chatter Creek
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Grey Catbird - Blackbird Island in Leavenworth
Cassin's Vireo - Chatter Cr
Warbling Vireo - Chatter Cr
Yellow Warbler - Blackbird Is
Audubon's Warbler - Icicle Cr
Nashville Warbler - Chatter Cr
Townsend's Warbler - Chatter Cr - Lots!
Oregon Junco
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Spotted Towhee - Leavenworth
Pine Siskin - Icicle Cr
American Goldfinch - Leavenworth
Cassin's Finch - Leavenworth
House Finch - Cashmere
Red Crossbill - Leavenworth
Black-headed Grosbeak - Blackbird Is
Evening Grosbeak - Icicle Creek (dozens at a feeder at Rock Is Cmpgd)
House Sparrow
Starling
Brewer's Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird

Sunshine, low humidity, and the chance to show the kids just how
wonderful Blackcaps (Rubus leucodermis) taste! Can't argue with
quality time - and the chance to do a little birding and botanizing.
(Not to mention the 'wurst' dinner and accordian music in Leavenworth!)

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net