WOS conference day three - the river canyons

[tiggymalvern]

For my third day of conference birding, I stayed down in the valleys more, following the Snake and Grande Ronde rivers south through the canyons where Washington state meets both Idaho and Oregon. This wasn't the most productive day of birding, no dramatic finds compared to the previous days, but the scenery made up for it!


We started the morning with a brief stop at Asotin Slough Habitat Management Unit just outside Asotin. With most of the valley in shadow still, the sun was hitting the east-facing slopes of the hills.


One of the roadside stops heading south along the Sanke River. The side we're on is Washington, with Idaho across the way.


We took a short walk along the Buffalo Eddy trail to where there are petroglyphs (rock carvings) made by Native Americans.




This one shows elk and bighorn sheep.


View at the end of the trail.


Still driving south, with cloud lingering over the hilltops.


Mind the chukars on the road!


An area of the Snake River canyon with more dramatic cloud.


We spent most of the day birding in the Chief Joseph Wildlife Area. An osprey nest platform where the Grande Ronde River flows in to meet the Snake. This one wasn't being used, though most of the others were. It was a day with a lot of ospreys.


We did a couple of hikes in the wildlife area, one on the Green Gulch trail, where we got rained on a bit, and one further west.


A large elk herd on the hillsides above us.


Some flowers by the roadside. There were noticeably fewer flowers on this lower elevation day, where presumably they peaked earlier in the spring. At this point, we'd just crossed the border into Oregon.


A Say's Phoebe on a fence post.


We didn't stay in Oregon long before we turned and started to retrace our steps. The weather continued to change on us with some glorious sunshine again as we followed the Grande Ronde River back east. I got to take my coat off again!


And back to the meeting with the Snake River.


The worst of the rain hit us when we'd basically stopped birding and were heading back the to the hotel for the evening. We got a truly heavy downpour on the section, so thankfully the timing worked out pretty good overall.

Comments

[tameiki]

Wow, that's a big herd of Elk you saw, and the Say's Phoebe is so cute all puffed up like that. You certainly see a lot of beautiful scenery on your hikes. ❤

[tiggymalvern]

Washington state is crazily diverse, so many different types of scenery to see. And the elk seem to like at least half of them!

[bymyverytoes]

That scenery is dramatic and yet restful. Lovely.

America does have such charismatic little birds. No wonder you love looking for them. I hope no humans were hunting those deer.

How old are the petroglyphs? They look old but maybe only because I expect them to be. Great for you to see them.

Thanks again for sharing your day with us. You really had good luck with that rain ❤️

[tiggymalvern]

Apparently the petroglyphs cover a huge time range, from thousands of years ago to just a few hundred. The people were adding them at that same site over a long period of time. Hunting season is closed right now, so nobody hunting them at the moment, but I don't know if the wildlife area might allow hunting for culling in winter. In hte absence of wolves, it might be needed.