Fifteen members of the Vancouver Audubon Chapter joined me on
March 9th for a combination wildflower-birding trip into Klickitat
County. Our main stops were at Bingen Pond in Klickitat County where
there was a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE with the CANADA GEESE on the Port
Office lawns. We stopped at Locke Lake (the first lake east of Bingen)
and picked an EURASIAN WIGEON out of the mixed species flock on that
small pond. A few YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were in the oaks at the ponds
edge while both TREE and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS swooped over the water's
surface.
At Rowland Lake a pair of LEWIS' WOODPECKERS were guarding their
nest tree next to the restrooms. From here we drove up to the Catherine
Creek Nature Conservancy Wildflower Preserve. The Grass Widows are in
full bloom and Yellow Fritillary speckled the field, it is little early
for many of the flowers but with the amount of moisture they received
this winter there should be a good bloom in a few weeks. Our best birds
at the preserve were MERLIN, PRAIRIE FALCON, and WESTERN BLUEBIRD. After
a visit to Balch Lake where the only birds seen were WOOD DUCKS and a
RED-TAILED HAWK a stop and long wait was needed to spot one ACORN
WOODPECKER that briefly came to the granary tree.
Wilson Cady
gorgebirds at juno.com