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 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. |
| The wind comes from this direction . . . |
I continued across the prairie, noting that the European
rabbits remain established and wreaking their habitat degradation.
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. |
| Rabbits everywhere |
 |
| You have to watch where you step . . . |
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
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. |
| The rabbits just burrow under the fence . . . |
 |
| 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.
