A Long Weekend Between the States
Jun. 12th, 2018 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
This last weekend was the Washington Ornithological Society annual conference, this year based out of Hood River in the Columbia River Gorge. Yes, the Washington birdwatching conference was in Oregon, but it's the only town in the area with a big enough hotel to hold us all, and the first thing we did every day was cross the bridge back into Washington to look at the birds :-)
Weather was mixed - gorgeous the day we arrived and the day we left, with some wind and rain around inbetween. Definitely colder than is typical for Hood River in June.
I travelled down via Yakima and stopped at the Toppenish Wildlife Reserve, because that route's a lot more scenic with a lot less traffic than I-5. At Toppenish, I found a Wilson's snipe posing perfectly on a post giving its mating call.
The Columbia river gorge behind the hotel. That first evening, I had a lovely dinner out on the balcony, overlooking the river - it was the only day that happened!
I actually got really lucky with the weather and my trips - the first day I'd booked to go up Mount Adams, where it was beautiful and sunny in the morning and it started to rain right around the time we got back to the hotel. We spent most of the day looking for forest birds among the hundred foot tall firs, because the snow level was too low, so we couldn't get to Takhlakh lake as we'd orginally hoped.
Lupines in a mountain meadow.
The Columbia river gorge under the clouds, late afternoon.
Saturday was another day that started out reasonably nice, but with a chill wind, and then the rain rolled in for the evening. We followed Hwy 97 up to Satus Pass, spending a lot of time birding around the creek at Brooks Memorial State Park. Away from the creeks, the landscape was typical eastern Washington thin pine forest and dry meadows.
Sunday began in the pouring rain, and that's where my trip choices really paid off, because I was headed east, up into the hills above Dallesport and beyond. It was definitely not a day to be up at Mount Adams, and the west-bound river level trips had a pretty wet and miserable day of it too.
The difference between west and east!
And the consequences, with a part rainbow for us to admire.
Looking down over the river from the hills above the gorge.
Lupines grow everywhere :-)
Balch Lake is rather optimistically named for something this shallow and this small.
It is, however, one of only five places in Washington state where the endangered western pond turtles are known to still exist.
The problem for the pond turtles is that introduced bullfrogs and bass species eat their hatchlings. Currently, biologists put tags on the female turtles so they can track where they lay their eggs and dig them up. The eggs are then incubated and the hatchlings looked after by prison inmates, and released when they're a year old and big enough not to get immediately eaten. I think it's a better use of prisoners' time than making licence plates.
Wildflowers among the oak trees.
Monday, departure day, was supposed to be utterly gorgeous, and we arrived at Conboy Lake Wildlife reserve just as the sun was dissipating the morning mist.
Mount Adams, with the last shreds of mist fading away.
An original old pioneer cabin from the 1870s. The kitchen extension to the left was a later addition.
Ponderosa pine forest with golden, dying ferns.
A view of Mount Hood in Oregon.
We also had some cooperative birds, so generally a successful weekend, worth all the early mornings!
Now I should get back to the photos of Maui, and then the dive video from Maui and Cuba that I still have lurking in the background. Working backwards is good, right?
Weather was mixed - gorgeous the day we arrived and the day we left, with some wind and rain around inbetween. Definitely colder than is typical for Hood River in June.
I travelled down via Yakima and stopped at the Toppenish Wildlife Reserve, because that route's a lot more scenic with a lot less traffic than I-5. At Toppenish, I found a Wilson's snipe posing perfectly on a post giving its mating call.
The Columbia river gorge behind the hotel. That first evening, I had a lovely dinner out on the balcony, overlooking the river - it was the only day that happened!
I actually got really lucky with the weather and my trips - the first day I'd booked to go up Mount Adams, where it was beautiful and sunny in the morning and it started to rain right around the time we got back to the hotel. We spent most of the day looking for forest birds among the hundred foot tall firs, because the snow level was too low, so we couldn't get to Takhlakh lake as we'd orginally hoped.
Lupines in a mountain meadow.
The Columbia river gorge under the clouds, late afternoon.
Saturday was another day that started out reasonably nice, but with a chill wind, and then the rain rolled in for the evening. We followed Hwy 97 up to Satus Pass, spending a lot of time birding around the creek at Brooks Memorial State Park. Away from the creeks, the landscape was typical eastern Washington thin pine forest and dry meadows.
Sunday began in the pouring rain, and that's where my trip choices really paid off, because I was headed east, up into the hills above Dallesport and beyond. It was definitely not a day to be up at Mount Adams, and the west-bound river level trips had a pretty wet and miserable day of it too.
The difference between west and east!
And the consequences, with a part rainbow for us to admire.
Looking down over the river from the hills above the gorge.
Lupines grow everywhere :-)
Balch Lake is rather optimistically named for something this shallow and this small.
It is, however, one of only five places in Washington state where the endangered western pond turtles are known to still exist.
The problem for the pond turtles is that introduced bullfrogs and bass species eat their hatchlings. Currently, biologists put tags on the female turtles so they can track where they lay their eggs and dig them up. The eggs are then incubated and the hatchlings looked after by prison inmates, and released when they're a year old and big enough not to get immediately eaten. I think it's a better use of prisoners' time than making licence plates.
Wildflowers among the oak trees.
Monday, departure day, was supposed to be utterly gorgeous, and we arrived at Conboy Lake Wildlife reserve just as the sun was dissipating the morning mist.
Mount Adams, with the last shreds of mist fading away.
An original old pioneer cabin from the 1870s. The kitchen extension to the left was a later addition.
Ponderosa pine forest with golden, dying ferns.
A view of Mount Hood in Oregon.
We also had some cooperative birds, so generally a successful weekend, worth all the early mornings!
Now I should get back to the photos of Maui, and then the dive video from Maui and Cuba that I still have lurking in the background. Working backwards is good, right?
no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 06:31 am (UTC)I think it's "lupins" not lupines, but maybe I'm wrong?
no subject
Date: 2018-06-13 02:03 pm (UTC)