amber@scott.stat.washington.edu (Amber Tatnall) (05/17/89)
The Moses Lake and Potholes Reservoir region of eastern Washington is one
of my most favorite places to go birding (that doesn't count places that I
can IMAGINE would be among my favorite places!). The country there seems
so exotic to one who grew up in suburban Connecticut where the landscape is
almost cosy with trees and undergrowth and well-ordered lawns. In my
Connecticut, there's exactly one robin for every backyard. Small town and
cramped landscape.
Now, eastern Washington! There's a place for vistas. Just east of the
Columbia on a high plain, the region of Moses Lake is one of hard, volcanic
rock carved by once wild creeks. Smaller versions of the Southwest's
mesas with swamps at their feet. The land is harsh. The air hot and dry in
the summer. Sagebrush, olive, willow, and cottonwood. Orchards of cherries,
peaches, and grapes. Sand dunes left by a long-gone ocean and potholes
(from the glaciers?).
The place is heaven for birds. Ducks are attracted by the many small,
isolated ponds of the Potholes. Earlier in the spring, the Pintails came
through, followed a month later by the Cinnamon Teal. Last week, Redheads
seemed to predominate. By this time, the Pintails were gone. The
shallower ponds are feeding ground for American Avocets, Black-necked
Stilts, and Forster's Terns. Over the last two months, their number has
steadily increased. Two weeks ago, they were joined by Wilson's
Phalaropes, some Godwits, and Black Terns. Caspian Terns and some species
of gull, Ring billed among them, spend most of their time feeding on the
larger lakes with the fishermen. (Did I mention the place is trout heaven,
too?)
Meadowlarks sing from the sage brush. Western Kingbirds on the wire and
all kinds of swallows feed off of the mosquitos which feed the fish which
feed the gulls. Americann Kestrels have some favorite perches in the
wildlife refuge. Swainson's Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks haunt the newly
plowed fields. Mice, moles, voles. The most I saw of these creatures were
innards in a hawk beak and a nest of fluff, Q-tips, and cigarette butts on
my engine block in the morning. Not reliable field marks.
Burrowing Owls sit on the fence posts that line Frenchman Hill Road. A
Great Horned Owl lives inn the Potholes State Park, in an evergreen tree
amidst the RV's. I saw one parent and two "babies" --one was almost fully
fledged two weeks ago. Now the nest is empty. I don't know if they
learned to fly as part of the natural process or if they hastened their
fledging to avoid the tourists who wanted to see the "baby eagles" :)
Bullock's Orioles and Yellow-rumped Warblers are also in the state park.
Sage thrashers and canyon wrens live in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge, along
with Magpies, Black-crowned Night Herons, Great Blue Herons. Snakes and
coyotes. And of course, where there are cattails, there are blackbirds.
Red-wings and Yellow-heads provide the most amazing soundtrack. I don't
know if blackbirds are mimics, but the Yellow-heads have perfected the cow
and the generic industrial machine! Cowbirds too -- and I've convinced
myself that it WAS a Rusty Blackbird that I saw that time two years ago!
These are only some of the birds that I have seen in this area of eastern
Washington. I'm sure that a more experienced birder would have a field
day. I recommend it highly, as I know others must have--birders have found
all the hot spots in the last two years. Now I'm not the only one braking
to a sudden stop on Dodson Rd!
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/))))/ \ Look!! On the wire! It's a bird!
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/_/ / \ Amber Tatnall, Seattle, Washington
=====^=======^======= amber@scott.ms.biostat.washington.edu