May 27/28th - Whistle Punk and Wind Mountain (Skamania County)

Whistle Punk Trailhead

What a neat spot. I had seen lots of good sightings from this trail, near Wind River Road, and not far from the Pacific Crest Trail north of Carson. A morning chorus in May is too valuable to miss, so I made my way down on Saturday. Somehow, in the planning of this weekend, it had not sunk in that I was looking at Memorial Day weekend. As I looked around for campsites/hotels/anything, I got the quick and firm impression that things were pretty full and/or expensive. So, it would be time to sleep in my car!

I was okay with this - my rotator cuff issues have been improving, but the idea of sleeping a little more upright seemed like it might reduce some stress on the shoulder. I also liked the idea of being here for owls! The mix of habitat here, from old-growth to deciduous, to swampy, to open fields. . . I just figured I'd wake in the middle of the night to some kind of hooting or another. 

On my way in, I stopped at the Bungalow Bar and Grill to grab a pint and to do my usual thing - getting a feel for what places are like by chatting with strangers, playing fly-on-the-wall, etc. It was a busy Saturday night in Carson! Lots of people were in playing pool, shouldered up to the bar chatting. I ended up in a conversation with a young man at the bar. 

What an interesting conversation! He was at the tail end of six months where he was living out of his van off and on. He had plumbing and a stove set up in it and was enjoying life on the road. He pulled up his phone and showed a panorama view from one of his hikes, and we talked about some of the places that we had both visited in Skamania. He'd be settling in with work and a place to live soon. It feels like it's been an interesting confluence of several events out there in the world: 

It's getting more expensive to find a place to live. 

It's getting easier to work remotely. 

It's getting easier to live nomadically. 

This guy is going to be doing work as an electrician, so not all of that is part of his story, but there are definitely a lot of resources available now for people that want to save some money. He was not at all unhappy about his six months on the road, and it was fun to hear his story. 

To the trailhead

So. . . just to restate this: I am running around (quite happily) with a data-free phone. Add to this, I am running around in a car that has GPS, but it appears to have maps on it that are extremely out of date. So, if I'm going to go anywhere off of the grid, it often means spending a little time in advance, hand sketching maps, comparing it to the maps in my gazetteer, and finally - expecting to get a little lost. :)

All of this happened, in short, but I did get to the trailhead fine, in the end! I finally came across a sign for the Whistle Punk Trailhead, pulled into the large parking area, and fell asleep under the stars. 

Morning Chorus

American Robin, MacGillivray's Warbler (my 95th species for the year in Skamania - one bird closer to the goal of 150), Black-headed Grosbeak (96), Pacific-slope Flycatcher (97), and Olive-sided Flycatcher (98) were the most prominent calls at 5 A.M. I stepped out and added Song Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow as well. I had slept well and was excited to get my breakfast going. I poured water into the pot and set up the stove. . . no lighter. I could picture the little bag - the one with matches and a few instant coffee packets and a spoon. But it was nowhere to be found. 

I looked at the trail. I looked at the time. I looked southward to where Carson would roughly be. . . and tried to imagine anywhere being open at this hour. With something between a grumble, a chuckle, and a sigh, I packed up my breakfast-to-be, and set off on the trail. 

As I continued, I was amazed at the range of birds I was hearing - Western Wood-Pewee (99), Willow Flycatcher (100), and Yellow Warbler (101) joined the year list. Spotted Towhees were also fairly active in this lower area. Then the trail started going uphill a little bit. Odd. My perception from reading trail reports was that this was a pretty accessible trail, but I stuck with it. Western Tanagers (102) gave their prikadik calls now as well, with the sky just now starting to get lighter. It had been a cool and clear night, and this was a near-perfect morning for the walk. 

Continuing up the trail, the trees seemed to get bigger. The trail was lined with Vanilla Leaf, Nipplewort, Salal, Sword Ferns, and numerous other native plants. Evening Grosbeaks (103) called overhead. It had been such a thin year so far for finches - any returning ones were more than welcome. New birds kept coming, including Warbling Vireo (104), and Hammond's Flycatcher (105) - an expected flycatcher in the conifers that were packed on this hillside. 

I stopped at some point and wondered on this. Hillside? I distinctly remembered that there were reports from this trail that included things like. . . Sora and Virginia Rails! How. . . I looked up the trail, looked down and was starting to feel pretty sure that I was not on the Whistle Punk trail. I started to head down but remembered my thoughts about owls. I whistled Northern Pygmy-Owl whistles for a bit as I walked now, listening as far as I could with this nice elevated spot. Nothing!

Vanilla Leaf

I got back to my car and was pretty happy with my totals for the morning. But I knew without coffee and food, I'd be pretty cranky later. That's when a pickup rolled into the campground. I waved down the guys that got out. "Beautiful morning, yeah?" "Say. . . would you happen to have any matches. . . ?"

I explained the situation, and they whipped out their own stove to boot! We chatted as my water boiled over their stove. It turns out that they were in the area to collect firewood to sell. One of the guys chatted with me about this as the other walked up the trail a little, returning with some "pitch wood". I got a good whiff of this and immediately understood the name. "This stuff will light so fast," he nodded as he broke it down into smaller pieces with his hatchet. 

The other guy chatted with me about the economics of their scavenging, which also included the collection of shells from shooting ranges. They would get the bullets, which contain a lot of lead (to this day, somehow), remove them from the environment (thankya!), and make ingots. My eyes widened at this. Just the idea that Joe on the street could make . . . ingots blew my mind. Now, the guy went on to explain more about this, and clearly there was a lot to it - ventilation for one, keeping water away from the works so that nothing exploded - but I was still impressed by the whole thing. 

As he chatted with me, my eyes and ears remained open, among the things that I saw and heard were Band-tailed Pigeons, Cedar Waxwings (106), Brown-headed Cowbird (107), and a Black-throated Gray Warbler (108) that conveniently flew onto a branch right behind the guy, posed for me, and then flew into the cover of the branches. 

I got my breakfast, thanked them, and then asked before they left. "Is there a marsh or something around here?" "Right up the trail," hatchet guy said, pointing at the *actual* Whistle Punk Trail. I cracked up at this and explained that I had gone up the adjacent trail. "Oh. . . yeah, you were going up Bunker Hill. That trail's kinda gnarly!" 

Oh. . .

So, I'd arrived at 7:30 or so, had already gotten a little walk in, finally had breakfast, and was ready to start walking the trail I'd originally wanted to walk! The prospects of getting some of those elusive marsh birds served as a good carrot for me. I was thinking to myself that my friend Wilson would have to explain where his warblers were hiding, but they did make an appearance (109), as did Brown Creeper (110), Swainson's Thrush (111), and Canada Jay (112). I also kept hearing calls of Hermit Warblers. . . or Townsend's. I started to give myself Warbler Neck Syndrome, just trying to look up at them, but kind of gave up on the idea that I'd see them. They were so often far away, or high up in the canopy. 

I did eventually find the marsh, where I was greeted by Common Yellowthroats and Red-winged Blackbirds. I clapped a few times, and tried to do my best Virginia Rail imitation, but no other marsh birds were calling. Red-breasted Sapsuckers (113) called and gave their syncopated tappings all along this stretch of the trail. Vaux's Swifts (114) also flew overhead. 

In the next little area, the forest got a bit thicker with nice old trees, and I actually succeeded in finding a Hermit Warbler (115). This was one of the birds I'd really hoped to find here, and it gave me nice views of all field marks. Were there Townsend's Warblers here too? Almost certainly, but I've kind of given up on naming these two species without a visual!

40 plus species for the morning. About half of them were new for the year. This was a good stop. 

A few birds for the road

I went down the road - much less lost now - and pulled into a cafe in Carson, the Crosscut Cafe. This gave me a chance to peek at emails, pull images off of my phone and camera card, and to enter some observations. The "needs alerts" and "target species" tools on eBird shine brightest when you don't need so many darn birds! Removing 20 and more from the list gave me a clearer picture of where I wanted to go next. 

Wind Mountain looked like my ultimate stop. Nashville Warblers seemed to be easy to find there, based on reports. It was time to go confirm this hypothesis! Heading to the car, a Hutton's Vireo (116) called. :)

On my way there: Wind River Mouth - Cliff Swallow, and Caspian Tern (117); Home Valley Park - Bullock's Oriole (118).

Wind Mountain

I got to this trailhead and found there were a lot of people hitting the trail this morning! Armed with just my camera and binocs, I started to follow some of these people but found that it was a little dead-end trail from the parking lot. We conferred as we were returning to the parking lot. I flagged down someone getting into a van. "Where's the trailhead?" "Oh hey, I know you!" It was the guy from the Bungalow from the night before. He directed us down the road to the trail. 

"So how long is the trail. . . ?" I asked someone. Usually a good question to ask before heading off on a hike, right? "1.2 miles."

Well, why not?

I found this to be one of the best warbler-viewing hikes I've ever taken. The reason? Observe the following diagram: 

I feel like the situation on the left is where I usually am. Hiking up Wind Mountain, it was almost constantly the situation on the right. There were almost always trees off of the trail whose tops reached just to my eye level. This made for magnificent views of the birds along the way, including. . . 

MacGillivray's Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Hermit Warbler

At some point, I was probably still able to justify turning around, as I'd seen the Nashville (119) Warbler that I'd come for, but I was close enough to the end of a short trail. I wanted to see the top. How awesome it was to get there! It had gotten a bit warm, so the cooling wind at the top was not at all unwelcome. Signage explained that this was a common site for spirit quests by Native Americans in the area, and I could see why. 

Having rested a little at the top, I started back towards the car, adding one more bird on the way down: Sooty Grouse (120). 

The rest of the afternoon

Spotted Sandpipers 
Little White Salmon Fish Hatchery

I got to the car and wondered where to go next. The needs list was certainly shrinking! I decided that the Little White River Hatchery would be the best bet. I had somehow gotten my hatcheries mixed up at one point and had waited patiently for Canyon Wrens to sing from above the buildings at Spring Creek Fish Hatchery a month or two back. This was the spot. Although. . . I did get confused about *which* buildings, perhaps. Either way, I got no Canyon Wrens here, but this is the right spot. I also got no Harlequin Ducks here, but this is also the right spot. What I did get were some Spotted Sandpipers (121) playing in the river, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows (122) buzzing around. 

Brown-headed Cowbird
Saint Cloud Wayside

Other stops: Beacon Rock State Park - here I really only drove the entry road, but I came across some Bushtits (123) that had been sighted there by others. 

Saint Cloud Wayside - I stopped for Yellow-breasted Chat here, following other observations, but came up short. 

Marble Road: Bingo! or Yahtzee. . .But it was only three birds, so I guess we'll go with: Tick-tack-toe.

Marble Road

Yellow-breasted Chat (124), calling from along Marble Road - a nice new year bird, and following this general pattern of "these are noted as rare, but just wait a couple of years". Lazuli Bunting (125) singing from the hillside as well, and then Savannah Sparrows (126) from a field just a little further along. 

Marble road will take you all the way to a sign telling you you're entering Clark County. I turned right here onto Fitzgerald Road, and got one more Skamania bird to finish off the day - Eurasian Collared-Dove (127). 33 new birds for the year. . . this was a good day of birding. 

Evening plans

I drove to the Steigerwald parking lot, and promptly took a nap right there in the lot. There were likely dozens of Clark birds waiting for me, just a short walk away, but I was a little tired!

I stopped in Washougal for dinnerlunch, getting some pizza and wifi at Trap Door Brewing, then hit Vancouver to check in with my friend Kevin Black, picking up a camera bag that I had left in his car earlier in the month. And goodness, I got a shower. He and his wife are salt-of-the-Earth kind of people who made me feel not at all unwelcome on this unplanned stop. Once I was clean, I even got to hold their newborn! Kevin and I chatted and chatted and chatted about the birds behind me from the morning, and about birds ahead of me in the next day. 

My day actually ended. . .in Cowlitz County! I drove up to Woodland, and took a right, up Lewis River Road. Please note that the parentheticals are changing now - I made a couple of stops along the way, including one at Merwin Park, situated on the large artificial lake. Here I picked up Olive-sided Flycatcher (134 for my Cowlitz year) and Cedar Waxwing (135).

On the road to Merrill Lake

I kind of started to head for the Merrill Lake Unit (Merrill Lake Unit opens to public: ‘It’s like a national park’ - The Columbian), but it was getting late enough, and I saw a sign at Merrill Lake itself that said "campground". I figured it was worth a shot, and I had my Discover Pass with me. I was in "luck", finding an open campsite (completely littered with food scraps and utensils). It was nice to finally pull out the tent! I set up camp pretty quickly and fell asleep with the light bustle of a summer campground in the background. 

Day 19 in the books!