Marian and I took a 4 day-3 night camping trip to Field’s Spring State Park last week, staying the 3 nights in the park, and birding the two full days there on morning car trips from the campground to the two half-day loops described in the ABA’s A Birder’s Guide to Washington.
We drove from Tacoma to the park on Thursday, with brief stops at the Central Ferry HMU in Whitman County on the way there to pad my Whitman County list. It was midday, birding was slow there, but I added 11 species to my feeble Whitman List while we had lunch. A Say’s Phoebe along with Bullock’s Oriole and American White Pelicans on the river were the highlights.
We got to the campground by late afternoon, and an evening walk and sit by the campfire added several new Asotin County birds to my life list there; not a tough task as I had only birded the county in winter previously. First evening highlights were Red Crossbill, a species that throughout the stay was easily heard and occasionally seen overhead in the coniferous treetops, and a calling Common Nighthawk as it got toward dark.
The next morning I got a great group of songbirds excited just outside the campground with a Pygmy Owl imitation whistle, and added a few more species Then we drove down Hwy 129 to the Grande Ronde River Road and drove west for a few miles on that road. Several Townsend’s Solitaires, along with both Canyon and Rock Wrens, innumerable Lazuli Buntings, and several vocal Yellow-breasted Chats were highlights. The drive itself was spectacular, with many basalt cliffs, deep valleys, and open pine forest and huge meadows all around.
The river was cool too, but we missed American Dipper, and we got home in time to have lunch and to to Chief Timothy Park, where a swim and sit in the shade was enjoyable.
he next day was my favorite day of birding. We headed down from Anatone on Montgomery Ridge Road, pretty much following the route suggested in the guide book in reverse. One side road went down to the river, and then on the main road down to Asotin we went through fields with many Grasshopper Sparrows, Mountain Bluebirds, and as we got to the deciduous riparian area near the bottom Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos. We visited Swallows Park and Looking Glass Parks along the river, with a few shorebirds, Caspian Terns, gulls and had a nice lunch at Looking Glass.
On the drive home we took the W. Mountain Road from Anatone to Prosser, a long very dusty but beautiful drive. I picked up a female FOY Williamson’s Sapsucker there, along with a county first Northern Pygmy Owl that responded to my imitation whistle, both in Garfield County.
Overall a trip I recommend to anyone who wants to spend some time in the northern part of the Blue Mountains.