January 19 - Okanogan Highlands

The alarm went off at 5 a.m., so that we could breakfast at the motel.  The Omak Inn’s offerings consist of waffles and/or biscuits and gravy, along with cereals, yogurt and fruit, breads and bagels, and such.  Not bad at all, except for pretty weak coffee.  My Dad used to tell me that “… most people camp too close to the creek to make decent coffee.”

We arrived along Fancher Flats road at dawn, which has been a good spot to see Chukars in years past.  We waited for a while, hearing the morning song of a Canyon Wren from the rimrock above the road.  Then, a pair of Golden Eagles landed on a ponderosa pine snag on the ridge and vocalized with their ringing calls.  Kyle spotted a ‘chicken’ high up on the ridge line, but it was just a silhouette against the mist & gray sky.  This was his “Lifer” sighting of a Chukar, but a fairly unsatisfying one.  Then, the eagles launched from their perches and as they flew, nearly 40 Chukars flushed from the hillside, and several settled close to us for very nice views.

Leaving the Flats, we drove up Siwash Creek Road.  Siwash is a pretty derogatory term for a Native American here in the Pacific Northwest, and I’m a bit surprised that the leadership of the nearby Colville Tribes has not petitioned the County for a name change.  Siwash, is an Anglicization of the French “Sauvage” or Savage!  Perhaps they take pride in it?  Who knows?

Stolen from Dr. Robertson’s Chinook Jargon page at
https://chinookjargon.com/2013/03/27/racially-insensitive-verb/

In any event, we had been successful in previous years in finding the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse feeding on the buds of the water birch (Betula occidentalis) in the area.  But, it was not to be today.

We scouted around the Okanogan Highlands throughout the morning, and picked up Pygmy Nuthatches, and finding several more large flocks of Cassin’s Finch.

Finches in the Birches

These large flocks of the finches seem pretty unusual, and makes us wonder whether there had been a lack of feed in other areas that resulted in the species making such a good showing here.

At 10 a.m., we pulled into the Highland Sno-Park to call for woodpeckers and a purported Great Gray Owl.  We did not hear an owl, nor see one through the ground fog, but a Black-backed Woodpecker gave us a brief visit.

Why is it always foggy when I'm in the Highlands?

Besides the snow, there was rime ice on the trees, giving them a very “Christmassy” look.  Among the pines and firs, there are a number of trees that appear dead.  But they’re not!  These are the “tamarack” or Western Larch, which lose their needles every fall, and are a deciduous conifer.

Frosty Western Larch Larix occidentalis

Driving out of the Sno-Park we saw a doe and yearling White-tailed Deer of the Columbia Basin subspecies, and a curious Red Squirrel.  The ‘red’ squirrels around here are mostly grey in color, but are all Tamiasciurus hudsonicus.

Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus - not all that red around here

Checking a couple of farmsteads where the residents put out bird seed to feed the winter denizens gave us good looks at species we’d already seen on the trip.

Downy Woodpecker male

Black-capped Chickadee

American Goldfinch male in winter plumage

Suet for lunch . . .

Hairy Woodpecker male

Mountain Chickadee

Shep graciously provides bags of bird seed to several of these folks in exchange for their good will in allowing us birders to stand in their yards to observe “their” birds.

Gifts are Good

The fog lifted here and there, and besides seeing the scenery revealed, we had views of more of the local residents.

We came into the town of Chesaw,

Chesaw History

which often has some of our target birds at feeders and in the habitat along Myers Creek, but it was pretty quiet this afternoon.

We did find our first Northern Shrike on a utility wire above town, which is always a good bird for us West-siders.

We birded around the area until the sun went behind the hills, and headed back toward Chesaw, finding a nice Pygmy Owl

Our Smallest Owl

and a lone Ruffed Grouse.  We drove back toward the Sno-Park.  As the sun set

and the moon came out

Shep’s sharp eye spotted a beautiful Northern Goshawk atop a fir tree, shortly before it headed for its night roost.

Highly enhanced Goshawk photo

The Sno-Park was still fogged-in, and again we did not hear any owl vocalizations.

Still foggy . . . still no Great Grey Owl

We drove back down the mountain and stopped in the town of Tonasket to eat at the Rancho Chico for Mexican food, before returning to Omak for a good night’s sleep.