Subject: [Tweeters] Poorwill success! And Umtanum Creek Canyon
Date: Jul 11 17:34:57 2008
From: Louise Rutter - louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org


I drove up Reecer Creek Road towards the foothills at 9pm last night, the
orange glow of the vanished sun still hanging over the Cascades, trying not
to kill the killdeer that seemed to have settled in to roost on the road. A
common nighthawk performed his display dive over the unfarmed bottom-land
before the first cattle grid. A great horned owl sat on one of the roadside
poles north of Lower Green Cannery Road. At first I thought he was Bubo
plasticus, because very obvious owl silhouettes planted up high on poles
always are, but then he turned his head to watch me pass!



I stopped first at Matt?s lower recommended spot, the first big turn-around
loop after the road becomes single lane, on the right hand side. I didn?t
hear any poorwills, but it was still quite light, so I drove on up to
Connie?s choice of spot, the big turn-around on the left about a mile past
the second cattle grid. The poorwills began to call while half a dozen
veeries were still singing from alongside the creek, but they sounded
distant, out across the hills. (I might have to go back to that spot in
daylight sometime to look for my lifer visible veery since there were so
many of them singing out there!)



I took the car out of gear and coasted back down the road in the fading
light, with several long skinny mammals trying to commit suicide under the
wheels and moths fluttering in the headlights, but I made it down to Matt?s
spot at the first turn-around without poorwills. I listened again and heard
nothing ? obviously the poorwills were all higher up, so I swung around to
make the ascent again. And right there on that first bend, before the second
cattle grid, was a poorwill sitting in the road, a male with a bright orange
eye and distinctive white tail corners. That first sighting was 9.50pm.
Jonathan Cooper was right ? he just sat in the road in the beam of the
lights as I get closer and closer, until I had the poorwill sitting three
feet in front of my wheels. And then as the headlights swung away for me to
go around him, he took off, fluttering silently into the darkness.



I hadn?t had my fill of poorwills, so I drove back up the road again,
collecting two more sightings along the way. Unfortunately I had a van on my
tail by that time, and I?m not sure he would have appreciated stopping to
admire the wildlife as much as I would, so I had to pass them by fairly
quickly. I hung around Connie?s turn-around a little while again, toasty
warm with the roof off and the heater on, but the only sound with me by then
was the babbling of the creek rushing down the hillside. Oddly enough, I
never heard another peep out of the poorwills after I started to see them.



Drifting down the road one final time, I had one more poorwill who?d
returned since the last trip. I drove back to my hotel feeling very content.





This morning I headed out to Umtanum Creek Canyon for my annual date with
the Lewis?s woodpeckers in the old beaver glade about 2 miles in. They were
there, faithful as ever, along with the American kestrel pair who always
seem to be in that glade whenever I visit, but today I saw Lewis?s from
further down the canyon too, doing their crazy woodpecker fly-catching thing
high above the trees.



Another of my target birds for the day was yellow-breasted chat, and I
picked up one of those from the suspension bridge crossing the river, before
I?d even hit the trail. I saw 6 more along my hike, only one of them singing
up high the full chat song. The rest I found either by following movement,
or tracking that low ?tuk? note into the depths of bushes.



Around ? of a mile into the canyon, a pair of prairie falcons had what I
assumed to be a nest site high on the cliffs on the left. I would never have
seen them sitting there, if one hadn?t flown in screaming for me to follow,
and then I saw the second bird. A very nice find indeed.



Other than that, the canyon was alive with Lazuli bunting and American
goldfinch, and lots of rock wren and canyon wren were calling from the
walls. Most of the birdsong had dropped off by 10am, leaving a few brave
Lazulis and various alarm calls to follow me back out, along with the
ubiquitous mewing of the towhees. I had a couple of silent and mysterious
Empids, too far out to have any hope of an ID without a scope, the only
flycatchers announcing themselves being the ever-present wood peewees.



I called at Elk Heights Burn on the way back home for my third miss of the
year at black-backed woodpeckers. But I had 4 year birds to add to my
poorwill lifer from the night before, so I won?t complain!



Thanks again to everyone who brought their poorwill knowledge and experience
to my aid.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland