February 2 - American Camp on San Juan Island

At noon, I drove on out to American Camp visitors’ center, to find it closed until next month.

Although the site was open to the public, the National Park Service had the restrooms locked!  You’d have thought that they would have learned something about the perils of doing that from the recent Donald Trump Government Shutdown, as it is obvious that folks have been taking care of business behind the buildings, etc.

I walked out on the trails, immediately greeted by a Columbian Black-tailed Deer

I went through the fenced area with the historical buildings.

For Civil War buffs, the park has a connection to George Edward Pickett.  This Virginian was a career U.S. Army officer until the Southern States seceded from their country.  He defected and became a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, and is famous for “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg.

He allegedly conspired to start a war – over a Pig – between the U.S. and Great Britain, with the intent of furthering the cause of an independent South.

The Park Service must have been doing some prescribed burning last fall, as the parade grounds were recovering from the fire set for native plant restorations.

The trail to Robert’s redoubt took me past a tree with several Western Bluebirds, which are always a nice find in western Washington during the winter.

I can only imagine how cold and miserable the US Army troops were, back in 1858, doing their duty on this barren, wind-swept end of the island.  The English, of course, had enough sense to locate their Camp on the other, protected, end of the island.

The wind comes from this direction . . .

The prairie here is littered with “Glacial Erratics”, brought here 15,000 years ago by the Puget Sound lobe of the last major glaciation, and stranded when the glacier melted.

I continued across the prairie, noting that the European rabbits remain established and wreaking their habitat degradation.

Rabbits everywhere

You have to watch where you step . . .

I find it odd that the Park Service allows these non-native invasive species in a National Park, when they are so anal about removing non-natives in other parks . . .  One non-native species that is not still here is the colony of Eurasian Sky Larks that persisted until the 1990s.

Down at the South Beach,

I scoped the placid waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and saw a couple of Rhinoceros Auklets and Pacific Loons.

Pacific Loon in basic plumage

Walking back toward the Visitors’ Center, I noted that the clumps of brush here are mostly wild rose, with their impressive thorns.

The Park Service has apparently set up some exclusion fences, to measure the effect of grazing on the prairies.  This is likely not the best methodology when dealing with burrowing species such as the rabbits

The rabbits just burrow under the fence . . .

I again went past the ‘bluebird tree’, and got good scope views on 5 bluebirds - 4 of which were banded, and obviously members of the ongoing reintroduction program for that species on the island.

They've done a great job by reintroducing Western Bluebirds to the Island

Done with the walk, I drove over to Cattle Point and scanned the channel and Goose Island, getting good, although distant, views of Harlequin Ducks and Black Oystercatchers across the way.  Then back to Friday Harbor and the end of a fun day.

My eBird Checklists are Here, Here, Here, and Here