I also have to thank all of the people who participated at this year's conference. Those who organized it did a splendid job on everything and all of the people I had a chance to bird or visit with were a joy. Wenatchee has some splendid scenery, wildflowers and birding opportunities.
As the Monday morning Burch Mountain field trip gathered in the Red Lion parking lot, Russ Koppendrayer stopped by and told us how he started to drive up Burch Mountain on Sunday and turned around after the third bend in the road where there was a taillight laying in the road. Despite my best efforts to scare off the participants by describing how rutted the road was when I scouted it on June 3rd and how I thought that it had deteriorated since then with the recent rains there were six people who were still willing to give it a go. Even walking the group up the start of the road to show them the ruts failed to deter this hearty bunch. So we headed up hill, two small four-wheel drive pickups and a Subaru Outback. This road has few rocks and looks like it could be very treacherous when wet but dry it was as solid as concrete and gives good traction. But in the first three miles there are ruts in about five different sections of the road where you are driving on ridges between gullies that are up to two feet deep. The taillight near the bottom of the mountain was only the first of the many car parts that are along the roadside.
We stopped several times to listen for birds in a stiff cold wind and to let our heart rates drop while listening for birds. Few species were detected until we reached the shelter of the conifer forest at the end of the road where we could not only hear and see birds we were in a lovely wildflower area where Susan Ballinger identified the various species for us. I was delighted to see the locally endemic white delphinium blooming amid tall forget-me-nots. Wandering around the top of the mountain produced a nice sampling of common species such as Hermit Thrush, Rock Wren, and Townsend's Solitaire. We had stunning views of the Columbia River and Wenatchee far below us and from Eagle Rock we enjoyed the eastern view of the Cascade Mountains. While eating lunch two four-wheel drive vehicles drove up to the end of the road, a large maintenance vehicle for the State Patrol communications tower on the mountain top that had slipped into the gullies on the road up and had high-centered on one of the ridges and was unable to move until winched off by the State Patrol Officer that had been dispatched to rescue it. The drive down seemed much easier (perhaps that was just relief at seeing the valley floor come closer) and we once again looked and listened for our target species the Black-throated Sparrow but finding only Vesper, Lark and Brewer's Sparrows. We ended up with a list of 52 species which has to be the shortest list of any conference field trips.
I want to thank all of the participants of this fun trip, Kathy Andrich, Susan Ballinger, Lee Barnes, David and Jo Nunallee, Guy McWethy, and Shep Thorp. Special kudos to Lee and David for be willing to take their vehicles to the end of the earth and back between breakfast and dinner.
Burch Mountain - It's not just birding, it's an adventure.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA
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