July 18 - Across White Pass to Home Sweet Home

This morning, Marty & I headed toward home - Marty in her work vehicle and me in our CrossTrek.  At Ritzville, we parted paths, as she continued west toward Snoqualmie Pass, and I took the southern route toward White Pass through Othello on State Highway 26.  I stopped at the ‘Headquarters’ of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, where I scoped the cattails across the road to find a pair of Tricolored Blackbirds.

This species is similar to the common Red-winged Blackbird, but is subtly different.  The male Tricolored has a red shoulder epaulet, but the red is more ‘brick-red’ than ‘orange-red’.  This is often hard to determine, given the amount of light, and really hard to tell in a photo.  In this shot, the male has a lot more white on the wing than I'd expect, even on a well-worn Red-wing.  The shoulder looks more brick-red than orange-red.  On the other hand, there's a fair amount of wear/molt on this bird's lesser & median coverts, with a hint of orange, which first led me to think that he might be “just a Red-wing” with worn epaulets.

But, the photo of the female shows a more 'conical' bill.  I'm not getting the orangish color in the face or buffiness in the breast that I'd expect in a female red-wing, and she seems to have more of a streaked, grey-dark plumage, rather than brown-dark.

Female Tricolored Blackbird

The Refuge has a number of trails, and one goes to Black Lake.  This trail is about 3/4-miles in length one-way, but you must backtrack to return to your vehicle. The trail crosses a bridge over Crab Creek and then takes you on a dike to Black Lake, which is located off the refuge.  After crossing the creek, however, I walked to the right, up the creek to a series of cattail-covered ponds, and returned to the car.

During the last Ice Age, sheets of ice spreading down from Canada blocked the Columbia River with dams of ice.

Channeled Scablands

Occasionally, the dams failed, sending floodwaters greater than the flow of all the world's rivers combined tearing across eastern Washington's lava fields, gouging coulees, depositing massive sand and gravel and boulder bars, scraping the land bare in some areas and leaving behind rich soils elsewhere.  These landscape features are evident on the refuge, as part of the Drumheller Channeled Scablands.

And, they are a great place for bat roosts

I left the Columbia Basin at Yakima and drove up the Tieton.  By the time I got to the top of White Pass, I needed to stop and decided to walk around Leech Lake.

Spiral Butte above Leech Lake

I had always assumed that the Pass was named for the White River, which now flows into the Puyallup, although that didn’t make a lot of sense, since White Pass is not near the White River.  So, I had to look it up.  According to Washington Place Names: “This 4,500 foot pass is between the headwaters of the Clear Fork of the Cowlitz River on the west and the Tieton Basin on the east in Lewis and Yakima counties. It was named for Charles W. White, a civil engineer, who discovered the saddle while working for the Northern Pacific Railway Company. He later laid out the streets of New Tacoma, Washington which is now downtown Tacoma.”

The lake is used by anglers as a fly-fishing-only water, per Chapter 220-312-050 (178) of the Washington Administrative Code.

The current water level is fairly high with the summer snow melt.

The trail around the lake goes past some scree, where I’ve seen Pikas in the past, but none today.  There were chipmunks and red squirrels all along the way, though.

Yellow Pine Chipmunk Neotamias amoenus

Chickaree Tamiasciurus douglasii

And many wildflowers were in full bloom.

White-flowered Rhododendron R. albiflorum

Red Columbine Aquilegia formosa

The warblers were in full song, the flycatchers were flycatching,

Orange-crowned Warbler

Olive-sided Flycatcher

and a female Red-winged Blackbird gave me a good view to compare with the Tricolored Blackbird I’d seen down in the Basin earlier in the day.

The female Red-wing is a lot buffier-brown than her Tricolored cousin

I really enjoy the couple of hours it takes me to walk and bird around the lake, and will stop here again next time I cross the Pass.

A fledgling Robin bade me farewell

I headed toward home, and the chance to sleep in my own bed for the first time in 74 nights.

Chipping Sparrow

McManamon Road wetlands eBird Checklist is Here

Columbia NWR HQ eBird Checklist is Here

Columbia NWR Crab Creek eBird Checklist is Here

Leech Lake eBird Checklist is Here

Mountain Arnica A. latifolia at Leech Lake