April 22nd - The Great Escape, Day 4

I woke up Saturday morning, nice and late again. Being on the road, getting a lot of work in, but also getting a lot of birding and hiking in. . . I needed some sleep! I was in Kelso, with an 11 AM checkout time, and the hotel wifi was pretty cooperative. I got some work done, and also poked around looking at what kind of quick birding I could do in Cowlitz, on the way to my eventual evening destination in Wahkiakum County. 

Rough-legged Hawks

These birds. . . goodness. I thought I saw one on the Christmas Bird Count. All but zero days into the year! But I got my camera up, relocated the bird, and got a nice shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk. Trips have been made to Woodland Bottoms, and I have picked Russ Koppendrayer's brain on whereabouts to find them down there. Nada. 

But three of them. . .  three of them!!. . . had been seen on Willow Grove Road. I looked this over, and also wanted to do a little loop to see more of Longview. So once my work was done, I went up to the North end of town. 

Oh yeah, and Gadwall! I've always loved the way that splash of orange shows up on the males.

"Ditch Number 6" is a funny enough name for a piece of water, but it had some nice birds recommending it, including Peregrine Falcon, some nice marsh birds, shorebirds, and ducks. I found it, and realized I was passing the first parking entrance for it as I drove by. I considered turning back around, but the drive gave me a good look at the fabled ditch, so I thought I'd gauge the birdability from the car as I drove. Not finding any mudflats, and not getting buzzed by any Peregrine Falcons, I eventually pulled into another trailhead (it's quite a long trail, and one I may hike at some point), and walked it a little bit. 

Golden-crowned Sparrow munching on blooms 

Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, and Mallards were in the actual ditch. From further up the trail, I came across a home that must have had a feeder. Three zono sparrows (White-crowned, Golden-crowned, and White-throated) sang from the blackberries below the home and above the ditch. I was able to spot all but the latter. 

New year birds, included Barn Swallows (101 for the year in Cowlitz), which playfully used the culvert that let the water run under the road at the trailhead. Rufous Hummingbirds (102) were common, as were Common Yellowthroats (103), naturally. Purple Finch (104) was the final addition as I got back to my car. 

I followed the road around to the Longview Sewage Lagoons, which were pretty empty, save a few Buffleheads. In migration, it would have felt silly not to stop, but wow they were quiet! I continued across The Four to get down to Willow Grove. 

American Kestrel - Willow Grove Road

How fun to be back here for the first time since the Christmas Bird Count. How nice it may have been if the Rough-legged Hawks had been here to welcome me! But it was not to be. Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, and Bald Eagle were the big birds seen along the way. I tried to turn some of them into Rough-legged Hawks without success, and the effort may have upset the Turkey Vultures especially. 

I did add a few birds: Orange-crowned Warbler (105) at a few stops; Spotted Sandpiper (106) at the beach; and a nice surprise, a big dumpy Band-tailed Pigeon (107) weighing down an evergreen branch in a tree near the Western end of the drive, before it turned back towards the start of the loop. It was a beautiful morning, and a lovely drive with no shortage of vantage points for scanning the fields, looking for birds in flight. . . on fences. . . in trees. . . so maybe I have a nemesis bird for the year in Cowlitz! You've won again, Roughies, but. . . winter is coming. . . ;)  

It's a fun thought, actually. The calendar gives us two winters of birding, and one summer. It could easily have been different! What if we got two summers? Or two springs or falls? What an interesting mix of birds we might get. But I'm fine with winter landing where it does in the calendar. Starting off slowly and ending slowly gives a little more time for planning, and a little more time for reflection. Nice ways to start and end the years.

Wocky Ockum

Pete Fahey was a fine friend and a fine birder. But, boy did he fail when it came to pronouncing some of our Washington locales, including poor Wahkiakum. This one always made me laugh. That said, it has been a year of failures and learnings for me in the pronunciation department. Say 'em out loud, and then scroll down to check yourself:

1. Longview (we'll start easy. Give you a nice false sense of security)
2. Wahkiakum (hint. . . it ain't Wocky Ockum)
3. Kalama
4. Cathlamet (surprise, it's a different place than number 3. I had someone tell me just yesterday that the h was silent. . .)
5. Willapa
6. Rosburg

No cheating. . . lock in your answers before you scroll!

1. LONG vyoo (nice job!!)
2. wuh KYE uh kum
3. kuh LAM uh (like calamity, minus the tea)
4. cath LAM it (apparently some people try to make this French. It is not.)
5. WILL uh puh (or, if you're feeling bucolically fancy: WILL uh pah)
6. ROSS berg (okay. . . I was calling it ROSE berg. . . which even this site seems to think is okay, but yeah, there's no E. Also, why not ROZ berg?)

In any event, I slid into Wahkiakum County, munching on some cheese and crackers that would be lunch and looking for a good pullout for scanning the Columbia. My first add for the Wahkiakum year list was a Turkey Vulture - 74 for the year. Spoilers. . . as I look at 74 now, a few days after the trip, I'm just wondering. . . what the heck happened during those two days?? Lots of birds coming through, and I hadn't been here since January. So buckle up, Buttercup!

From one of these early pulloffs, I also added Osprey (75), and Common Loon (76) looking sharp in breeding plumage. In Cathlamet, I parked and walked the trail near the Wastewater Treatment Plant at the waterfront. This was a nice stop for gulls, with Ring-billed (77), and California (78) joining the year list. I had other pink-footed gulls that I thought might just be the typical Glaucous-winged x Western Hybrids.

More Common Loons were seen out on the water, along with some Double-crested Cormorants. Violet-green Swallows (79) were plentiful, and I even picked up a few calls from Purple Martins (80), which I sadly could not track down to get a visual. Their beautiful throaty calls are pretty distinctive, however, so I was fine adding them to the list. House Finch (81) was the final addition in town. 

Julia Butler Hansen - Elochoman Slough

It was still early in the afternoon when I pulled up to JBH and started exploring. Birds were still busy enough, giving me 50ish species during what felt like a brief stop. Rufous Hummingbird (82), and Barn Swallows (83) were the easiest additions, and I additionally picked out Tree Swallows (84) a Cliff Swallow (85) at the pond near the headquarters building. Cinnamon Teal was hoped for and missed. 

Common Yellowthroat (86) and Townsend's Warblers were heard singing early during the trip, and eventually Orange-crowned Warbler (87) as well. I'd been basically shut out on finches in January, but Purple Finches (88) were singing everywhere (gosh I love their song), and I got a flyover of an American Goldfinch (89). 

Orange-crowned Warbler
hiding in the branches

The first nice surprise was a Hutton's Vireo (90). I suppose they're not a surprising bird, really, but there's a window during which they're singing, and I rarely see them or hear them outside of that February-April window. It called from across the slough repeatedly. Down in the mud of Elochoman Slough, a Greater Yellowlegs poked around. Any shorebirds in Wahkiakum are good birds! And finally Sandhill Cranes (91) were heard in flight. 

The next surprise - a Hammond's Flycatcher (92)! It gave occasional calls from some trees as I was watching the yellowlegs, a fun first flycatcher of the year for me (Black Phoebes apparently don't count as flycatchers, Tim?).

At the head of the White-tail Trail, I got Caspian Terns (93), screeching out on the Columbia. Plenty of Cackling Geese to pick through, but none of the hoped-for Greater White-fronted Geese were found with them. Most importantly, there were two GREAT EGRETS, which I will continue to believe are a mega-rarity, given how infrequently we see them up in Pugetopolis. Don't worry folks, another couple hundred Great Egrets this year, and I may even calm down about them. 

The Spar

Incidentally, the pint is a hazy IPA from 
River Mile 38 brewery from 
across town

I sat down at The Spar, back in Cathlamet, getting connected to some wifi, and taking in an early dinner of Clam Chowder (the largest bowl of chowder I think I've attempted to eat). Had I known how big the bowl of chowder would be, I may not have done a side of smashed potatoes and gravy, and it would have been a sad miss. 

It's always fun to sit in a small town spot and listen to conversations as people filter through. It was the birthday of one of the women behind the bar, and she got well-wishes from nearly everyone who came through. Fun little spot with good food, friendly service, and they were even setting up for karaoke night as I left. 

I swung by River Mile 38 Brewery on the way out, grabbing some smoked salmon as a Thanks for the Bed gift for Andrew Emlen, my host for the evening. Even in the process of trying to leave town, I added one more bird, Eurasian Collared Dove (94) - a pair visiting a feeder in town. This was nice because I'd driven all of Puget Island, it seemed, in January - missing these birds. 

Alcyon Farm

Skamokawa Valley

Andrew's place is tucked away in the Skamokawa Valley. I missed the turn at East Valley Road but found my way through Ingalls Road, which took me over Fern Hill. Again, just from being out in the world in April, I picked up another bird - Brown-headed Cowbird (95). It feels like bird number 74 for the year was a blink ago!

I rolled into the farm and was greeted by Andrew. We had plans to go kayaking the next day, which good judgment turned into plans to go tromping around in mudflats at Grays Bay. For the afternoon/evening, once I'd gotten my things unloaded, he took me on a walk through his property. 

Early on, I got a new year bird: A Red-breasted Sapsucker (96) working on its favorite tree, a Mountain Ash. As Andrew explained, there were dozens and dozens of trees that one could imagine a sapsucker visiting and lining with holes, but this guy was pretty focused on this single tree. 

As we walked, Andrew would occasionally bend down and toss something from the trail into the grass. I asked eventually and learned that snails were the explanation. Pacific Sideband Snail and Oregon Forestsnail - a snail that used to go by the name "Townsend's Snail". 

Oregon Forestsnail

Andrew has deep roots in the history of the area including natural history, so I got the lowdown on John Kirk Townsend as we walked. It's a name I know. Townsend's Warbler, Townsend's Chipmunk, Townsend's Solitaire. Gosh, I think the guy even has bats carrying his name. But. . . biologists at the time were into some horrible practices. One of the ones that Townsend was into was phrenology. Phrenology was a study of skulls of different races of humans. At their worst, phrenologists thought it could prove definitively that different races were different species. . . and naturally that the white race was more evolved. 

"So he wanted to collect skulls for his friend. . . " Andrew started, and I immediately went a little wide-eyed, assuming that this story was going to end in murder. As it turns out, no. But grave desecration. . . yaknow, it's not all that much better, is it? Townsend took the remains of a Native American woman out of a grave. The brother of the woman demanded that they be returned, and they were. . . but the brother's wailing over the desecration of his sister's remains. . . one would think this would clarify the situation for most folks.  

Townsend, undeterred, continued his grave-robbing practices, collecting several more Native American skulls, noting at one point that the death of natives from disease might be convenient for the purposes of his work. 

. . . 

and it will be interesting to see how scientific communities address things like this. We can look at it and say, "He was just a man of his time," but that is a phrase that has been used to cover up a lot of dirty things over the years. It's hard, because. . . I really do tend to believe in the best versions of people. I think that all people have flaws, mistakes, blemishes, but all people have. . . not just a good, but a beautiful side to them. With some, the garbage of life obscures that. I'd say here is a pretty good example of it. 

So, what do we do? I comically thought that one solution would be to just add. . . and pardon my French here, dear reader. I just realized that coarse language never makes it into these blogs, but. . . "That Asshole Townsend's Warbler", and the extra part of the name could be like. . . a good conversation starter? I don't know. Removing the name seems like a good start, but for the purposes of the day, this snail created a good window for reflecting on the darker side of our history. 

Whew! Sorry there. I should occasionally put up signs: "Primitive Blog; No Warning Signs", something akin to the no-warning-sign warning signs you see for primitive roads. TLDR: native snails are good. Andrew occasionally gives 'em a hand.

Salmon Fry - a little hard to spot! "That's why I'm still alive. . ."

From the bridge over Skamokawa Creek at the end of his big field, we listened to and eventually saw an American Dipper (97). They nest in a box he affixed under the bridge, and the chittering of young can occasionally be heard from those boxes. 

We missed on both grouse that had been seen and heard at his place during the recent week (Ruffed and Sooty), but Andrew figured the morning may be better for them. Returning to the house, we got Band-tailed Pigeons (98). 

Back in the house, Andrew worked on his dinner while his dogs moved in for ear scratches. We talked about plans for the following day and continued to talk about the property. I asked about mammals he'd seen on the property, and he dug up a notebook that had years of notes about birds, mammals, moths, butterflies, salamanders. . . and vegetable gardens. I had a laugh, because that's the kind of thing that would have made its way into one of my old notebooks too. 

Back in the days before eBird, there were other databases (some of you readers are still using them. . . goodness. . . ), and of course the good old-fashioned notebook. How fun to look through old ones where I kept track of birds that had been seen and heard in the yard over the years. 

And we got in a game of Scrabble. No timer (although that would be fun someday), and a semi-loose use of the dictionary. We would pull it out to double check words that we were pretty sure about. We would not open it up to try to find words from our rack. This modified set of rules has always felt about right. I regret to say that I am down 0-1 in this Scrabble series, but we definitely agreed that it would continue.

Both exhausted, we went to bed. 

I got up at three. Slipped out onto the front porch. Listened. Whistled for Northern Pygmy Owl. Got buzzed by a bat and immediately made my way back in. Fun fact - they've got a bat house on the property. Good to know.