I thought I would post a few highlights of the weekend birding trip
Natalie and I made this past weekend in Southeast Washington. The areas
we visited pretty much followed a route along Hwy. 12 from I-5 eastward
to Dayton, and it included a couple of stops in the Cascades (a scenic
viewpoint just east of White Pass and also Clear Lake), a thorough
investigation of the Sunnyside Wildlife Area, stops at all units of the
McNary National Wildlife Refuge, a look at the Walla Walla River mouth
and then a final trip up into the Blue Mountains along FS64 out of Dayton.

We also made a side trip to the Iowa Beef ponds near Wallula and saw good
numbers of shorebirds there - a half dozen Lesser Yellowlegs, a half
dozen Black-necked Stilt, 15 Red-necked Phalarope, and numerous Mallard.
We didn't see either the Snowy Egret or the White-faced Ibis that had
been seen at these ponds earlier this summer. One quick note about the
best way to view these ponds, which was passed along to us by a local
birder we met earlier in the day at McNary is to avoid trying to find the
gravel access road off Iowa-Dodd Road and instead continue south on Hwy.
12 toward Wallula, then after you pass over the railroad overpass near
the Boise Cascade plant, take the gravel road on the opposite side of the
road from the plant, heading east from Hwy. 12. Immediately turn left
onto another gravel road (the name escapes me right now) and drive along
the railroad tracks heading northeast as the road changes to a narrow
single lane right alongside the tracks. Continue down this road and you
will get a great view of the ponds. I offer the info because we had
trouble finding the proper access road off of Iowa-Dodd Road and I can
imagine a lot of others having trouble as well.

Here are some other highlights:

Hwy 12 scenic view stop near White Pass:
- California Tortoiseshell butterflies puddling along a spring along the
sliding roadside, along with at least one blue butterfly species.

Clear Lake:
- numerous Tree Swallows flying high over the trees and over the lake.
- butterflies everywhere, including Boisduval's Blue, Common Wood Nymph
and others that I couldn't get close enough to identify.

Sunnyside Wildlife Area:
- Saw two families of California Quail at one stop along the edges of the
WDFW wildlife area.
- At one stop with an open farm field alongside the wildlife area we
watched two Swainson's Hawks soaring along with a Northern Harrier.
- Not many butterflies here, although there is fading Milkweed growing in
areas that are not sprayed and cultivated, so I would imagine Monarchs
are possible here. Monarchs are usually further east along the Columbia
River though.
- We startled a trio of waterfowl along the side of the road where dense
lily pads cover a shallow lake, and I am not positive what these young
birds were. They looked like miniature Pied Billed Grebe. It was fun
watching them duck in and out from under the lily pads, and then give up
on hiding and start running across the tops of the pads.
- Spent some time watching four Ring-necked Pheasant along the sides of a
hops farm at our final stop in this wildlife area - it looked like one
female and three young. I snapped a photo of one bird running across the
gravel road in front of us and couldn't help but think of the Roadrunner
cartoons when I looked at the photo...
- numerous Cabbage White and Orange Sulphur butterflies nectaring and
mingling along the roadside on Hwy. 22 in an alfalfa field.
- We also watched a Prairie Falcon go into a swift dive while hunting
along the edges of Hwy. 22 before we reached the Sunnyside Wildlife Area.

McNary National Wildlife Refuge:
- We made two stops here, one around 7 p.m. on Saturday and another on
Sunday morning.
- From the area around the refuge office and interpretive center we saw
tons of Coots, both adult and young birds, along with Mallards, Red-
winged and Yellow-headed Blackbird, Killdeer, California Quail.
- Two White Pelicans scything for food in the water across the road from
the refuge office.
- One Monarch flying near the edge of the mowed grass field near the
refuge office. The next morning we also saw Square-spotted Blue
butterflies and Woodland Skipper.
- Also saw another Monarch flying southbound along the open fields at the
Two Rivers Habitat Management Unit of McNary on Sunday.

Madame Dorion Memorial Park:
- We spent the night in this park Saturday and other than voracious
mosquitoes and the KKK sticker I removed from the walls inside the
bathrooms, it was a good spot for bird diversity along the lower reaches
of the Walla Walla River.
- Quite a few Bank Swallow flying near this park, and there are holes in
some of the open embankments in the layers of Spokane Flood silt deposits
near the park and also on the south side of Hwy. 12 where it turns to the
east toward Touchet and Walla Walla.
- While driving back toward the park after dusk Saturday from the Touchet
area we had a moderate sized owl fly overhead along Hwy. 12. From size
and shape we guessed it was a Long-eared Owl. Later after dark back at
the park, we heard a Long-eared Owl calling from the trees along the
river. We also heard but did not see a Western Screech Owl.
- One Black-tailed deer in feeding along the edges of the park grounds on
Sunday morning.
- Also saw Goldfinch, multiple Wood Pewee, an Eastern Kingbird, a Western
Tananger, and both a Swainson's and a Red-tailed Hawk riding up on
thermals over the riparian area along the river.
- In the section of McNary that goes inland along the Walla Walla River
here, Natalie and I watched a White Pelican in the Sanctuary Pond, while
a couple of Ring-billed Gulls did aerial acrobatics over the pond.

North Fork Touchet River Road/FS64:
- We only made it up to around the Ski Bluewood area along this great
area in the Blue Mountains. All along the route we found numerous
butterflies - Mountain Parnasian, Lorquin's Admiral, and a fritillary
that I still need to identify. This area was simply full of butterflies
and they were nectaring on daisies as well as other nectar sources. We
even saw a few puddling for salts on dog feces...
- Best sighting was about a mile north of the turnoff for Ski Bluewood,
where we had a Long-earned Owl fly out of the trees and down the road
right next to us while a squirrel called out incessant warnings.

It was a hot but still pretty productive weekend of birding. 806 miles of
driving but we had good glimpses of a lot of Southeast Washington...

--
Rob McNair-Huff <mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com>
White Rabbit Publishing <http://www.whiterabbits.com>
Publisher of Mac Net Journal <http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal>
The Equinox Project <http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html>
Co-author of Insiders Guide to the Olympic Peninsula