Tag: Blue Mountains

Birding Around Field’s Spring State Park, Asotin County, WA

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.

American White Pelican at Central Ferry HMU

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.

A Tee Pee at the Field’s Spring SP

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.

Grande Ronde River

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.

The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63 with Mike Denny: More Info


Mike Denny

Mike Denny is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #63, and what fun we had doing the recording. I called Mike a week or so ahead of a hoped for trip to the Walla Walla area in hopes of seeing my first Washington State Great Gray Owl. I had seen this species in Oregon, on a trip coordinated by Ken Brown for our ABC Birding Club, when a local biologist took us to a known nest box. That was very exciting, as an lifer and we got to see both adults and young birds. Mike offered to take Ken and me to a known nesting area in WA, and though the birds had fledged a week or so earlier, he expected that we would be able to find them in the area.
Gray Catbird

After a nice early morning of birding the lower elevations of Walla Walla County, and adding Veery to our WA year list, we headed up Jasper Mountain. Along the way Mike held told stories
Adult Ferruginous Hawk in a tree right beside the road. Photo taken through open drivers window from passenger seat.
of the Jasper Mountain Land Trust and how important they, and land trusts in general are to habitat preservation, as well as lots of cool info on the birds, butterflies, salamanders, snakes etc of the area.
After getting to the area of the nesting spot, Mike showed us the unusual nest site, a large escavated Pileated Woodpecker working, and we started to look for branching owlets. Mike pointed out scree by the road. He showed us how adult scree is all urea, like most birds, but that the scree of young owls can contain undigested hair and other material. We also saw wolf dung, like large dog poop but containing lots of hair from the deer or elk that they take as prey.
Wolf Dung. Note the hair from prey .

Shortly Ken spotted two owlets on a branch of a tree maybe 75 meters away. We looked at them, and then moved to a place with a clearer view. Mike suggested that we sit and watch, and wait for the parents to come feed them. I thought this was a perfect time to talk, and record the podcast, so Mike, Ken and I sat on a roadside bank, watched the owlets, and recorded this episode. I used an omnidirectional speaker, so listen carefully and hear both the owlets begging, the adult GGOW answering, and lots of other birds in the area.
Two of the 3 Great Gray Owl branching young birds that we watched for an hour or so.

Here is a link to The Secret Life of the Forest: The Northern Blue Mountains.
Here is the web site of the Blue Mountain Land Trust, the group that has helped preserve the land around a top birding area we visited, Coppei Creek https://bmlt.org/
Here is the snake that Mike spotted in the road on the way down from Bethyl Ridge Road.

A species of snake, a “Racer” of some variety, that Mike managed to get to move from the middle of the road to directly underneath his vehicle.

And here is Mike looking for the snake in his engine compartment, after he tried to shoo it away to safety, and instead it hid under his car, then disappeared.
Mike searching for the snake in his engine compartment.

Overall a great day of birding, ending with this fabulous sunset.
Sunset over Rattlesnake Mountain.

Until next time, good birding and good day!