My wife and I traveled to the Blue Mountains for a week and a half of
camping. Talk about your Bio-overload! 1st, a quick story: We stayed with
some friends in Walla Walla who are fairly new to that area and haven't had
much time for exploring. The wife asked," How do you get into the Blues?".
Her husband said, " First you have to move to New Orleans and learn to play
jazz!".
We found a total of 112 bird species for the trip, over 100 wildflowers (
my wife is still keying some stuff out, 28 butterflies, and 18 mammals!
Life Birds: Great Gray Owl (Thanks Mike!), Northern Waterthrush,
Yellow-breasted Chat (for my wife) all in Oregon.
Neat Bird Observations:
1)Ft. Simcoe St. Park: A Lewis Woodpecker swooped down and caught an Ochre
Ringlet butterfly not 30 feet from me and took it to a cavity in a big oak,
presumably to feed a nestling.
2) An aerial combat over the Tucannon River (no. Blue Mts) between 2
Cooper's Hawks and a raven. The COHAs kept trying to maintain the higher
position and dive on the raven but the bigger bird finally just soared up
and over a ridge.
3) While walking through a meadow at Elk Flats (north of Elgin, Oregon) I
heard a ground squirrel squeak an alarm. I turned just in time to see a
Northern Goshawk sail through the area. we found all 3 accipeters in the
area.
4) We estimated over 1,000 Cliff Swallows are along the Umatilla River ( I
believe it's Reif Road, or the Old Pendleton Road)! I don't know if anyone
has reported that or not but there are at least 3 huge colonies of the birds
along with several groups of Bank Swallows. We also were up close to a
Golden Eagle there, too.
Birdiest Campground: Teal Springs north of Pomeroy, Wa. We had the place
entirely to ourselves for 3 days. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet there sang
incessantly from dawn to dusk. Don't go there expecting teal: there's no
water.
Mammals including a couple of brief stops along Hwy 2: All the cute
little rodents (3 ground squirrels, 3 tree squirrels, 2 chipmunks) A nice
cinnamon phase Black Bear near our campsite, elk, 2 deer sp., Bighorn Sheep,
Coyotes, Pika, bat sp., Long-tailed Weasel, Cotton-tailed Rabbit.
Whew! If you've never been in the Blues, you're missing some great scenery
and great birding!