May ended with a sunset typical of clear summer skies; these are not fleeting sunsets either, but ones that last for over an hour, changing hue and character as the sun sets lower below the horizon.
I love the contrast between the fire in the sky and the cool purple of the distant mountains.
We took advantage of this amazing weather we’ve been having recently, not too hot and not the least bit cool, to go birding. Dan is the official list keeper for this county and not that many birders report to the list for our county since we are officially in the middle of nowhere. Besides us, there have been two other reports for 2009. We needed to do our part and add birds which are not just on our property and besides, going birding is one of our favorite activities when we aren’t being lazy and just hanging out at home. We know several places where we are sure to find species which hadn’t yet been reported for the county. We added 13 species to the county list for 2009 during our day of traveling.
The cattails aren't green yet, a very slow growing plant.
First stop was this swamp for Yellow-headed Blackbirds. The instant we stopped the car and got out at the parking lot, we heard their sweet singing from the cattails. Their song is described by the Peterson Field Guide as, “Low, hoarse rasping notes produced with much effort, suggests rusty hinges.” One wonders how this song ensures survival of the species and how it came to be in the first place. It is loud, however.
Swimming around and doing duck things.
Swimming in the scummy open water were a couple of ducks, a female American Wigeon and a male Cinnamon Teal. A Common Yellowthroat was also singing in the reeds. We didn’t stay very long as we had places to go.
This Cinnamon Teal is keeping a beady eye on us.
Lupin are blooming this time of year, and pretty much everywhere you look you see their cheerful blue flowers. And, nothing appears to be munching on them, which gave me an idea that perhaps some of the domesticated Lupin would do well in our flower beds. But I digress.
Not a munch mark was visible. It's a definite thought!...
The Tenmile campground is one of our favorite places to enjoy a picnic lunch, a cup of tea, or just to stand around and listen to the ethereal notes of a Veery echoing off the trees and rocks. This is one of our favorite thrush songs. We’ve done very well on thrushes for the year. Last weekend we stopped on top of one of the passes and heard the Hermit Thrush singing, another simply beautiful song. The Hermit Thrush likes high altitude forests of spruce and alpine fir.
A serene place to stop and relax for a spell.
The county we live in has an amazing variety of ecological zones, and road down the San Poil River valley contains a lot of them. It goes through dramatic changes in topography and ecological zones, featuring towering cliff faces, Ponderosa forests, and sagebrush grasslands adjacent to Lake Roosevelt, not to mention the riparian habitat along the San Poil River itself. Because of this ecological diversity the county has a lot of fairly rare species for the state.
Granite cliffs rise almost vertically up from the river.
We didn’t see anything new for the year here. Swallows swirl on the air currents, and large raptors including Golden Eagles ride the air, surfing the cliff faces.
Close-up of the top of the rock face.
It is always beneficial when birding to stop at one of the many pullouts along the road and listen for birdsongs, or the water rushing along the riverbed, or wind in the trees.
Looking north along the road, this is the usual level of traffic.
There is a trail at Thirteen Mile we had always wanted to investigate, and we stopped at the trailhead to take a peek and see how steep it is, and to listen for birdsongs. We added a Hammonds Flycatcher to the list, and saw that the beginning of the trail is steep but then it levels out and follows a creek that runs through oldgrowth forests which has been fragmented by logging but pieces are still there. When we have some time and a lot of bugspray we’ll take this trail. Mosquitoes like me too much.
We stopped for lunch on the San Poil River and watched a male Black-chinned Hummingbird going about his daily routine, and added a Willow Flycatcher to the year list. The Black-chinned Hummingbird was at the same location as we saw a whole flock of that species drinking from sapsucker holes in an Aspen tree.
Our next stop was on Silver Creek Road where we looked for White-headed Woodpeckers. These little woodpeckers love Ponderosa forests, and we saw one female who was not making a sound, but was lightly poking around bark looking for food, and then flying around like a woods spirit. They are a beautiful species and it was the highlight of our day to get to see one.
Relaxing and reading a bird book.
Heading further south towards the ferry that crosses Lake Roosevelt, we saw one of the Osprey that nest along the larger water. They are such an amazing species, and we love watching them fly.
The picnic area is sometimes much more occupied, but this day it was almost vacant.
The level of water in the lake will continue to rise as the mountains thaw and lose their snows. The swimming area nest to the picnic area has several swimming platforms which are high and dry at the moment.
Looking north along the lake, the dam which created this lake is Grand Coulee Dam and is about 30 miles south of this picnic area.
We turned off the main road and headed up a dirt road we’d seen but never traveled before. We were rewarded richly for our experiment with a Gray Flycatcher, a Brewer’s Sparrow, a Rock Wren, and a Lark Sparrow. Speaking of weird evolutionary development, the Brewer’s Sparrow must have an interesting tale to tell. This species likes the dry sagebrush country, or it can be found at timberline in another dry climate, or one pocket of them can be found in the far north up in the Yukon. How did that all happen?
All in all it was a highly entertaining way to spend a day.