A “Sucker Hole” is the term that we Northwesterners use to
describe that little patch of blue sky that lures a person outside, only to have
the brief spate of sunshine disappear in an instant and the Heavens open up. A ‘true’ Sucker Hole is big enough to get you
at least a ¼-mile from your vehicle, so that you are well and truly soaked by
the time you get back . . .
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| Blue Sky?!! Let's go birding . . . . |
So, there was a nice half-hour of sunshine around 11
a.m., and I decided to go down to the Grass Lake Nature Park. The City of Olympia acquired the 171-acre
property in 1989, after local citizens rebelled against a developer who
proposed a large subdivision. When
forced to abide by the State Shorelines Act, after claiming that the lake wasn’t
protected – “it’s just a swamp…”, it wasn’t worth it for them to subdivide, and
they sold it to the city for $1.8 million.
Not bad to preserve this little gem.
I arrived just as it began to sprinkle again, so I cut
into the woods to stay out of the worst of it.
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| Nice little patch of second-growth Douglas-fir |
As I continued, the rain increased, and then turned to
1/8-inch hail before going back to a steady light rain.
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| Might rain . . . after the hail stops . . . |
The forest surrounding the ‘lake’ appears to be about
30-60 years old, and the ‘second-growth’ woods provide habitat for the common
forest birds - the workings on this Douglas fir snag attest to the presence of
Pileated Woodpeckers
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| Pileated Woodpeckers excavate rectangular-shaped holes |
Since it was raining, the birds were holding tight to
their cover, but there are other things to see in western Washington in the
rain. In the park is the “Elephant’s
Graveyard” - this is an old Geocaching site, with the name inspired by the
horde of cattle bones that were dumped many years ago, obviously from a
butchering operation
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| The Elephant's Graveyard |
This time of year, the “fairy fingers” can be found on
the forest floor. Their generic name Clavaria comes from the Latin clava,
meaning a club. Equally obvious, and again
from Latin, is the specific epithet fragilis,
which means fragile. These worm-like eruptions are very brittle and they
usually snap into pieces if you try to bend them.
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| Fairy Fingers - Clavaria fragilis |
In between showers, a few birds came out. Amongst a mixed-feeding-flock of chickadees
and kinglets was this little lady
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| Ruby-crowned Kinglet foraging through the Scots' Broom |
I returned to the car, dripping wet, but - the worst day
birding is better than the best day sitting on your butt watching it rain
through the window.
Grass Lake eBird Checklist is Here
