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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Overall a great day of birding, ending with this fabulous sunset.

Until next time, good birding and good day!