In a word - GLORIOUS! In a few more words - renewing, scintillating,
exciting, peaceful, promising. The three of us first broke into grins
as we crested Snoqualmie Pass and the mist gave way to major bright,
blue, white and dozens of shades of green.
First stop - South Cle Elum North Ponds, just off of South Cle Elum
Rd., along the railroad and south of I-90. Highlights: Osprey being
harassed by a Steller's Jay, Western Bluebirds, umpteen (as opposed to
Umptanum) Yellow-rumped Warblers (Audubon's variety), a beaver, and
breathtaking scenics.

Next, we stopped at the Cle Elum Bakery for a sweet or two, and then,
on to the Swauk Cr. bridge, where, besides the beautiful river rocks,
the dipper kept us aiming our cameras at it, hoping for it to hop out
of the deep shade, which it did briefly after about a half hour. The
yellow-bellied marmots running over the boulders, also seemed happy to
be sunning themselves. A Cooper's Hawk flew over the road enroute to
this spot. Soon, we were treated to a little reunion of of old
friends and colleagues when Denis and Tom showed up. They had birded
Robinson Canyon and had found the road fairly challenging, and the
birding minimal. They joined us in heading down Hiway 10 another 5
mi. to the cliffs where Common Ravens were nesting (and soaring),
Prairie Falcons had been seen a week previous (but not that day),
Cliff Swallows were in abundance, Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks
soared, and the brilliant lime-green lichen on the rock knocked our
socks off! Socks returned to feet, and we were off to eat our lunches
in the pastoral paradise we were to be treated to, up the road a piece.

Lunch was an unexpected pleasure at a farm of some friends of Tom's,
up in the Teanaway Valley. We munched while black-tailed deer did the
same just yards away in the shade of some Ponderosa pines. Scattered
about on the hillsides and amongst the grasses, were clumps of arrow-
leaved balsamroot plants, the deep-yellow daisy-like flowers adding
warmth to the spot. Pine Siskin were there, Turkey Vultures in the
distance and I'm sure Denis and Tom found all sorts of other "good
birds" on their post-lunch walk. Dory, Ray and I headed off for more
exploration, birding and photography (and eating adventures!). On our
way back down the road on which we had come up, we saw no sign of the
American Kestrel, Northern Harriers and Meadowlarks we had seen on the
way in.

Instead of immediately heading up the Umptanum Rd outside of
Ellensburg, we accidentally got off-track, and, in doing so, we found
ourselves heading up a road north of Ellensburg and right next to a
Great Horned Owl family, all out of the nest and snoozing and
"branching" in the cottonwoods. A local farmer stopped to tell us
that he'd first seen a bird in the nest starting the first week of
February and had enjoyed watching them ever since, amazed they made it
through windstorms, snow and all the other adverse weather conditions
that the area had experienced. He mentioned he had never gotten
around to using his binoculars to look at them (we all sure have
different priorities!), but he enjoyed looking through our scopes at
the 3 owlets in their various stages of development - a small, medium
and large youngster in the mixed feather/down finery, amused us
immensely and it seemed we entertained them, too. A first for all
three of us. We stayed there at least an hour-and-a-half, walking up
and down the road to get views from all angles, except from the other
side of the barbed-wire fence, where the Black Angus bulls patrolled
and snorted. The owls added snores and hisses to the cattle chorus
and our exclamations of delight. Note: at no time did the owls in the
trees seem at all perturbed by our antics - I did accidentally scare
an adult owl off a utility pole when I got out of my car. None of us
had seen the bird up there - we had only noticed the very obvious
nest. When the owl flew off the pole, it swooped down and then up to
a branch next to the nest, where it stayed for the rest of the time we
were there, much of the time with one eye open a bit and the other
shielded by a nictitating membrane. An RFI: why do birds close those
membranes when they sleep, when just their eyelids might do?

On to look for another GHOW nest the farmer had told us about -
between the two ends of the Woodhouse Rd. loop, along Canyon Rd. We
found the nest, but saw no owls nearby, so we headed on back to
Umptanum Rd. (another RFI: why is the ridge and canyon called
"Umtanum" and for the road a "p" is added?) We took a quick drive up a
couple of miles to see what we could spot in the fading light -
Osprey on nests, California Quail, Black-billed Magpies, a Western
Meadowlark, Brewer's Blackbirds, Mourning Doves & a Red-tailed Hawk
with mammalian prey, showed themselves to us.

After fleeing the Roadside Grill restaurant when told the wait would
be 45 min., we gassed up for our trip home (no minor feat) and stopped
at the Palace Cafe up on Main St., where we had unique and yummy
dinners in a quieter atmosphere (Roadside Grill was like a Red Robin
sports bar/restaurant) - this place was the perfect place for us to
"gas up" before our return to the Seattle area!

One more note: the many wind turbines spinning silently and eerily on
the hills along Hiway 10, added a rather unearthly, sci-fi, but kinda
cool look to all the natural landscape. We took pictures of them,
too. Was the definite buzz we experienced Tuesday, actually stray
electricity coursing through us from the wind farm generators? OK,
guess not...

Thus ends my narrative - please contact me off-list for more details
or directions or photos (especially of the owls). This is another
prod for me to start using my flickr account... :-)

Until my next trip eastward...

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net