Subject: Be Careful Out There
Date: Jul 12 10:32:58 2001
From: Lynn & Carol Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweeters:
I have been reading all the stories this morning in the Seattle Times & PI
about the wildfire tragedy that took the lives of 4 young firefighters near
Winthrop. I'm pretty sure that the fire is now near an area in which our
group of birders were traveling on the weekend of June 30-July 2.
On that weekend Charlie Wright & I took part in the beautiful WOS trip on
June 30 at Hart's Pass. We camped at 6200 feet!, and the next morning Ken
Knittle and Marv Breece took us up to the top of Slate Peak (elev 7400 ft.!)
to look at Rosy Finches and Mt. Bluebirds, and see a 360 degree view of the
North Cascades. Wow!
>From there, Charlie & I traveled to Loup Loup Pass Campground, and on Sunday
we met up w/ Ken Brown and a Tahoma Audubon Intermediate Birding Class trip.
The Ken Brown group spent a day in the Okanogan Highlands getting owls,
Bobolinks, and Northern Waterthrushes. We stayed overnight in Oroville, and
the next day, July 2, started up into the high country north of Winthrop.
We were
traveling on a good Forest Service Road, FR 39. We visited Long Swamp
Campground where we saw several birds including a lazily circling Northern
Goshawk. The weather was clear & warm as it had been all weekend. We
continued south on FR39, climbing higher to an elev of approx. 6000 feet.
We were in a boreal forest of pines and spruce. Eventually we came to a big
burn which apparently happened about 4 years ago. It was here that we saw
several pairs of Three-Toed Woodpeckers, some at their nest trees feeding
young. They were close to the road and gave us beautiful views of their
behavior. We were heading south to Tiffany Springs Campground where we ate
lunch. Somewhere on our journey through there we crossed over Thirty mile
Creek.
Thirty mile campground and Thirty mile creek are in the area of the current
big wildfire that flared up to become a "blowout", burning the crowns of
trees, killing the firefighters, and increasing in size in just a short time
to 8,700 acres. I think this fire may have come east to FR 39 when I look
at the map in the newspaper. FR 39 is just 3 miles east of the Chewack
River Valley, the site of the fatal fire.
But our group had a wonderful time seeing many birds. We traveled south on
FR39 until meeting FR37, and came south down into Winthrop. Then we headed
west on highway 20 over the North Cascades where Charlie saw Pine Grosbeaks
at Washington Pass. Charlie & I saw 173 species on our 5-day trip to E WA.
(Charlie wrote a report to Tweeters on 7-3-01 entitled E Washington &
Okanogan Birding.) Many of our miles were on back-country Forest Service
Roads and we were fortunate to not see any wildfires.
Today's articles point out that these kinds of fires can outrun a man. I
know the best birds (and scenery) this time of year can be seen at higher
elevations and on back roads. But please be careful out there.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines
linusq at worldnet.att.net