Subject: Central Washington birding
Date: Oct 27 20:57:47 2002
From: Rob McNair-Huff - rob at whiterabbits.com


Natalie and I made another pilgrimage to Eastern Washington this
weekend, making stops along Swauk Prairie Road outside Cle Elum, at
Confluence State Park in Wenatchee, and at Lake Chelan State Park and
that area on Saturday, then spending the morning up Icicle Creek near
Leavenworth on a cold Sunday morning earlier today. In general, bird
numbers were pretty low outside of the waterfowl at Confluence State
Park, but we did still have some nice highlights.

On Saturday around 11 a.m. along Swauk Prairie Road we were a bit
surprised to see a straggler Western Bluebird that played tag with us
and seemed to think we were chasing it as we slowly drove down the
gravel road after making the turn past the cemetery. The fields here
had no real bird activity going on at all, but as we drove closer to
the intersection with Hwy. 97 we first had a small group of 12 mule
deer cross the road in front of us, and we made a stop alongside the
pine trees at the edge of the fields to check out the Dark-eyed
Juncos, including three slate colored variety, picking at the road
bed. Our highlight here was hearing and then spotting two Red
Crossbill that were picking at pine cones in the trees overhead. This
was a great close-up view of the two birds putting their unique bills
to work as they dug at the cones!

We found ourselves at Confluence State Park around 12:30 p.m., and
while we only spent a few minutes with our binoculars scanning the
waters and the brush along the riverside, we still managed to see a
few common birds: Ring-billed Gull, Common Merganser, Bufflehead,
American Widgeon, Horned Grebe, and Red-necked Grebe along with the
more common sparrows, finches, and ubiquitous Canada Goose.

Birds were pretty scarce at Lake Chelan State Park, where we managed
to show up a few hours after a large cross country meet was held at
the park, birds were scarce. We saw a single Bald Eagle lingering in
the trees along the shore southeast of the park, then saw a Belted
Kingfisher, a Horned Grebe, and a Common Merganser along and in the
lake near the boat launch. While talking with a park ranger near the
park office, we were happy to see first hear and then see a single
Red-naped Sapsucker working the trees inside the park. Other birds
here included a pair of Clark's Nutcracker, Stellar's Jay, and
California Quail that we heard but didn't see. Another highlight in
our stop here was having a nice talk with the park ranger who
mentioned more secluded birding possibilities along the gravel First
Creek Road nearby - an area that looks like it had a burn go through
a few years ago and although it was getting too shaded for good
birding when we explored, it might be worth checking for woodpeckers.
The ranger's recommendation to check out the area came with a caveat
though...to beware of Cougar and the possibility of bear in the area.
We saw neither in our bit of driving around and stopping to listen in
the cold.

After spending the night in Leavenworth, we did some exploring this
morning up Icicle Canyon all the way to the Chatter Creek campground.
Birds were scarce in the canyon and along the creek as we drove up
before things had much of a chance to warm up from cold overnight
temperatures in the mid-20s. Some pools along the edges of the creek
were covered with ice, so winter is on the way in this shaded area.

Our pleasant surprise for this morning was a Red-breasted Sapsucker
that we watched for quite some time working over a cedar tree in the
Chatter Creek campground. We watched it drilling holes for at least
15 minutes, and though it never held still long enough for me to try
to get a digital photo through our spotting scope, there was little
doubt this was a Red-breasted - an all-red head with red tones
continuing well down onto the breast and some yellowish tones below
on the belly, with an almost all black back with some white and
barring all the way down to the tail. This was the first Red-breasted
Sapsucker Natalie and I have seen this year, so we were happy to
watch this fellow at such close range!

We returned to Tacoma via Stevens Pass and saw little of note on our
way back to the west side of the mountains. Good birding overall
though.
--
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
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