Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar, Bryan Hanson, Jacob Miller, Liam Hutchinson met at 6 AM on Saturday Jan 14 in Tacoma and headed east. We were headed for some county birding in SE WA, with a focus on Garfield, Columbia, Whitman and Asotin counties. In most years we do a winter trip to North Central WA, but in 2019 Ken, Bryan, myself and Ryan Weise came to SE WA instead and had a great trip, so we convinced Bruce to come this way this year, and Liam and Jacob, both young and very keen birders, were excited to join us. We split very comfortabluy into 2 cars, 3-to-a-car. Jacob and Liam rode with Ken, and Bruce and Bryan came in my car. We headed straigt to the Rye Grass reststop on I-90, then on east, leaving I-90 after crossing the Columbia at Vantage and heading onto Hwy-26. Liam and Jacob took on the eBirding, and we had a few lists on the way. Notable enroute birds were a flock of 60 Cackling Geese seen by all but me (driving and didn’t see) in Franklin County off Hwy 260, and several raptors from the car including Golden Eagles, Rough-legged and Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harrier.
Our first real out-of-the-car birding was a brief stop at Washtucna, WA at the city park, for a 15 minute brief look around and leg-stretch. Lesseer Goldfinches and a 15-species list got us going. From there more driving before our first real stop at the Central Ferry HMU in Whitman County, just before crossing the Snake River. We had planned to go on Hwy 261 to Lyon’s Ferry and cross there into Garfield County, but a sink-hole had the road closed, and so we detoured north to Central Ferry, and Ken quickly adapted our schedule so we could do some of Day 2 birding on Day 1, and switch most of Day 1 to Day 2. More driving day 1, but a good on-the-ground adaptation.At Central Ferry HMU I added 8 new Whitman County birds, and everyone was happy to be out of the cars birding after a long drive. Most of the county birds were typical winter waterbirds like some ducks, Horned Grebe, but also White-crowned Sparrow and Downy Woodpecker.
From there we crossed into Garfield County, with additional stops for the day across the bridge at Central Ferry (Garfield County), Deadman Creek Road, Ilia Landing, beofre getting our hotel in Dayton at a barely passable place, Blue Mountain Motel, having dinner and then going owling at the Lewis & Clark Trail State Park. We had been there on our prior trip, and this time again got two calling Western Screech Owls, followed by two hooting Great Horned Owls to finish a strong Day 1. For me the day gave 5 new Garfield County birds, 11 new Whitman County birds, as well as 2 new Adams County birds, Golden Eagle while driving and Spotted Towhee at Washtucna.
On Day 2 we started with driving around Dayton and then walking some neighborhoods, adding 3 Columbia County first for me, Townsend’s Solitare, Mountain Chickadee and Bewick’s Wren. From here we drove some back roads adding 4 more species, Northern Shrike and Steller’s Jay on Petit Road and American Dipper and White-breasted Nuthatch at the Wooten WMA. After that we found some of the “best” birds of the day at the Little Goose Dam area. Two species rare for Columbia County were the 3rd county records of Red-breasted Merganser and Red-necked Greve, and we also added county firsts for 3 more common birds, Common Loon, Horned Grebe and Common Goldeneye. A quick stop in waning light at Texas Rapids added a pair of GHOWs as well as county first for me Gadwall. We closed the day with a spectacular flock of European Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds, estimated at over 10,000 total birds, and at least a couple Brown-headed Cowbirds mixed in the massive flock, for the last county first of a good day.
For the last 2 nights we drove to Clarkston to stay at the Rivertree Inn, a nice and affordable hotel right on Hwy 12, Bridge Street. We had dinner at Rooster’s Landing, a nice place on the Snake River, with TVs showing the NFL football playoff games and with a good Humus Plate and fries for me (vegan) and good options for all. We had listened off and on to the Seahawks loss the day prior to the 49ers.
Day 3 was a day for Asotin County, and we had high hopes for birds both on the river and the higher plateaus. The difference between our prior trip and this time was the for this trip toere was no snow cover. On the prior trip all of the fields were snow covered, and we had nice flocks of HOLA with many GRPA, RNPH in the fields and around any cattle areas. On this trip we had almost none of these species. We saw a rare single Horned Lark, had no Gray Partridge, and only one flock of Chukar seen by the second car only huddled under a guard rail as a RTHA watched form a nearby perch. We did see good numbers of Golden Eagles, Routh-legged Hawks, RTHA including a nice dark Harlan’s, Northern Shrikes, and on the river a smattering of water birds. Really though overall not as birdy as hoped. We finished the day at the Asotin City Cemetery hoping for a Long-eared Owl seen there yesterday, but not to be. We settled for a pair of Great Horned Owls, hooting and one flew in to a tree nearby.
We had dinner again at the Rooster’s Landing and watched Dallas cruch Tampa Bay and Tom Brady. It was a wierd game, with the Dallas kicker, Brett Maher missing 4 consecutive PAT kicks. as the Cowboys won 31-14.