Nest Boxes 5-23-10 : A Tale of Two Chickadees

Both of our nest boxes are occupied this year.  We have one up on a big Douglas fir just beyond our back fence at the edge of the woods.  Chestnut-backed chickadees have nested here every year for almost 20 years, except the one year I didn't clean it out and a colony of bumblebees started up in it.

This year I moved a nest box that was hanging from our large camellia out front to a location by our back door where it hangs underneath a balcony.  A wren pair started a nest in this box last year when it was hanging in the camellia but for some reason the wrens abandoned it or something bad happened to them.  This year a pair of Black-capped chickadees have occupied it in the new location.

Feeder Watch 5-16-10

Hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus) at the suet feeder.
Hairy Woodpecker

Black-headed grosbeak - male (Pheucticus melanocephalus) at the sunfloer seed feeder.
Black-headed Grosbeak

Black-headed grosbeak - female (Pheucticus melanocephalus)

Browns Bay 5-2-10

My favorite place to chill is the neighborhood beach on Browns Bay.  There's always something new to see.  On this day it was the herons working the shallows, a lone loon further off shore, and a dead harbor seal missing some parts.

Grilling Steaks and Learning Things

A tri-tip steak takes about 20 minutes or so to grill.  Setting up the grill and taking a few sips of beer brings your outdoor time to somewhere over a half an hour.  Here's what I learned in that half hour:

• The chestnut-backed chickadees are back in their bird box for almost 20 years straight, except for the season I didn't clean it out and a bumblebee colony occupied it.
• I learned the song of the black-headed grosbeak by patiently listening, then finally observing the singer.
• I think I know the general area of a robin's nest by seeing them fly into the woods in exactly the same spot several times.

Black-headed Grosbeak - First of 2010 at the Feeder

Spotted the first Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) at our feeder.  Summer is very close.  Maybe I can find the nest this year. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-headed_Grosbeak/lifehistory

Kittitas

Driving back from Tri Cities takes one through the Yakima Valley on Interstate 82, then up and over several anticlinal ridges of the Yakima Fold Belt between Yakima and Ellensburg.  The Yakima River has cut through these ridges as they were folded.  I usually like to drive the meandering Canyon Road that follows the Yakima River through this gorgeous canyon but I was eager to get home.  There's a great vista point just before you drop into the Kittitas Valley, a land of ranches and hay fields devolving into ranchettes and McMansions.  Wind farms are sprouting up like alfalfa hay on the surrounding ridges.

I made a stop in Cle Elum and tried out a new place.  It looks like a dive but they make a fantastic burger on a French roll.

It was on over Snoqualmie Pass through some of the nicest mountain scenery anywhere in the country.  It's hard to appreciate it as you weave through the traffic on Interstate 90.

Sacajawea, we hardly knew yea ...

After my fourth and final trip to the Tri Cities for this particular work project, I went to check out Sacajawea State Park located at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers.  It was here on October 16 and 17, 1805 at the confluence of these two great rivers that the Lewis and Clark expedition encamped for two nights.

"... towards evening we arived at the forks of the river which came from a northly direction and is larger than this Columa. R. the country around these forks is level Smooth barron plains not even a tree to be Seen as far as our eyes could extend a fiew willows along the Shores. we found about 2 hundred or upwards Camped on the point between the two Rivers. a verry pleasant place. we Camped near them on the point. ..." Private Joseph Whitehouse, Corps of Discovery, October 16, 1805

From my readings I know that the confluence area was used by several tribes including the Walla Walla, Umatilla, Wanapum, Yakama, and Palouse.  The Palouse, excellent horseman, gave rise to the Appaloosa breed of horse.  The Palouse were subdued when the majority of their horses were slaughtered by the U.S. Army.

McNary Dam on the Columbia River forms Lake Wallula and backs up the waters of the Columbia and Snake Rivers to the point that may obscure the original expedition campsite.  I'm not entirely sure to what extent the river water levels have been raised.  I do know that the only real free flowing section of the Columbia River in Washington State is the Hanford Reach which is a little further upstream.

Sacajawea State Park itself is a pleasant day use park.  It became a Washington State Park in 1931.  It has a recently remodeled museum, the Sacajawea Museum.  The museum is small but well worth a visit.  The museum and other park buildings are built in an Art Deco style and probably date back to the 1930s, perhaps some depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps project.  The park has broad green lawns, large trees for shade, trails, and lots of riverfront.

Sacajawea Museum

Looking downstream on the Columbia to a railroad bridge.  A wind farm is visible atop the Horse Heaven Hills in the distance.

Looking upstream on the Snake River to a railroad bridge and the twin bridges of US Hwy 12.  Grain terminals to the left and right.  Lewis and Clark wouldn't recognize the place.