Klickitat Rare Bird Chase
Over the weekend, I decided to chase a rare bird alert from Klickitat County. The weather was looking sensational and I couldn’t resist the urge to head out in Merlin (my van) for a weekend of camping and exploring new parts of the state.
Yakima Canyon was my destination for Thursday night. I really do love that area - and, this weekend marks the 4th time I have camped there this year! There’s not many places I camp multiple times in a year (in fact - I can think of: Grayland Beach State Park/coast (shorebirds), Bay View State Park (winter Skagit birds), and Yakima River Canyon (spring passerines and raptors). I found a decent spot at the wonderful Big Pines Campground. This is a very scenic campground along the Yakima River with great views of the surrounding canyon. The birds were great here: Western and Eastern Kingbirds, Bullocks Orioles, Common Nighthawks, Tree Swallows, American Kestrel, and lots of House Finches.
Merlin ready for a night of rest at Big Pines Campground - Yakima River Canyon
Friday was a work day from the canyon. At lunchtime, I drove down to Los Hernandez tamale place in Union Gap, WA (just south of Yakima) for their very famous - and extremely delicious - asparagus tamales. What a nice treat for lunch!
There was a Northern Parula bird sighting at Yakima Sportsmen State Park earlier in the week, so I tried chasing it down for a couple hours - to no avail. It must’ve figured out it was in the wrong place (it’s an eastern warbler) and took off.
When work finished, I headed down towards Goldendale where a campsite at Brook’s Memorial State Park was waiting for me. I don’t recall ever driving this route before (I may have, but I don’t recall it…and definitely not since my birding adventures started in 2018). It was a nice drive down VERY busy US97 through the sage steppe. Along the way, I pulled over along a Yakama Indian Reservation road to look for a Grasshopper sparrow in their prime habitat of grasslands. Also - no available. It was also around 5 PM by then, so it was way past bird song time - and rather warm (mid 80s). After a half hour or so of search, I pulled onto the highway and made it to the state park.
Brooks Memorial State park isn’t really near anywhere - it’s fairly distance from both Seattle and Portland. So, it is not typically super busy. And, that was the case for this weekend - thankfully! I had a nice campsite tucked under some nice Ponderosa Pine trees. One of the sites next to me remained empty all weekend, and the other side of my van had a site occupied for just Friday night. It was quite peaceful. I got camp set up and made dinner (pre-made pesto pasta with peas from PCC that I tossed with chunks of cold grilled chicken. I did some reading and enjoyed the serenity of the location. I heard a couple Common Nighthawks flying overhead as it started to approach dusk. The sound of their calling reminds me of growing up in the Midwest. I certainly wasn’t birding back then (but, imagine how good I’d be if I actually DID start birding back then?!), but that distinctive sound reminds me of summer nights riding my bike with neighborhood kids.
Brooks Memorial State Park
I was scanning eBird (and a little app I built with Claude Code) to check out the local bird sightings. Tomorrow would be a big day with chasing a White-eyed Vireo - which was one of the motivations for this trip. I also saw some detailed trip reports from one of the best birders in the state about some Flammulated Owls at Satus Pass - which wasn’t to far from the campground. Hmm, I thought…what about driving up to the pass (about 10 mins) away to try my luck with the owls? So, around 9, I got a crazy idea to get in the van and I drove up to the pass area and up a winding “Bureau of Indian Affairs” road (sorta like a Forest Service Road) to the location where the owls had been found. I got out at an old abandoned ski area and walked around the former parking area - which is now sort of a meadow. I toot-tooted the owl sound to see if I could get a response - and nothing. I listened for about 20 mins - and eventually heard the very low/deep hoots of a Flammulated Owl (maybe) two in the distance. I walked back to the van to see if I could get better idea where it was - and the sound got a big stronger. So, I walked a short distance of this dark spooky road and got some really good sounds of the two owls serenading each other. It was pretty cool to hear that!
After lucking out with the “flamms”, I drove back down to camp where it was around 10:30 where I celebrated with a beer and went to bed. It was a nice solid sleep all night long. Being out a bit later than usual, I slept in a bit on Saturday morning which was quite nice as the weather was really wonderful with blue skies and very mild temps for the morning. The campground was just starting to come alive when I flung open the side door of the van to enjoy my coffee and breakfast.
But, I had work to do! I needed to get to the White-eyed vireo spot which was about 45 mins away. People had seem it the day before, so odds were pretty good. I drove down to Goldendale, refilled the tank with Diesel, and then took the Goldendale-Bickleton highway to a gorgeous canyon called Rock Creek. I had never visited this place before and the drive down the canyon was stunning. The canyon bottom - along Rock Creek - was quite wooded. I parked where I thought the bird might be (and where I thought it had been scene) and immediately heard a very loud Yellow-breasted Chat. These birds are wonderful and very funny with their ongoing persistent never-ending “chat”ter. Within a few mins, a couple of birders (the #1 and #3 birders in the state) approached in their car and greeted me by name(!). They said that the vireo was about a ¼ mile up the road from where I was and they had actually seen and heard it! So, I got in the van and drove the the gravel road to two parked cars. There was another couple there who I have been on various other bird chases around Western WA. Within a minute or so, I heard the White-eyed vireo calling, so I pulled out my phone to record it on Merlin. Merlin didn’t recognize the song (even though it clearly heard it) because the bird is so far outside its range that it didn’t register in the AI. The thing is: we couldn’t see it. We all wanted photos of it - so we talked around and, actually didn’t call it in with previous recordings. After about 20-30 minutes, it sang and sang and also made some appearances in the trees. It was working its way up and down the creek. It was really fun to follow it back and forth as it would “work” the trees (gleaning bugs) and singing and making appearances every so often.
White-eyed Vireo - in WA State!
One of the birders had another engagement later in the afternoon, so she said good bye and departed. Jeff and Victoria and I stayed around for at least another hour and a half or so and found a pair of Ash-throated Flycatchers which we were wondering had a nest nearby. Then, then they took off to go find some more birds in teh “area” (Kittitas). I spent another half hour by myself watching and listening to this wonderful sighting. I was so thrilled to have seen and heard and captured audio/photos/video of this amazing species which was way outside its range.
White-eyed Vireo range map - courtesy Birds of the World - note: WA is nowhere close
After I’d had my fill of this gorgeous thing, I decided to keep pushing my luck and find another rare bird - a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher about 40 mins away. And, potential Acorn Woodpeckers (not rare for the area, but in WA they are only in the southern reaches of the sate in Oregon White-oak forests). eBird had a very specific address for the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, so I drove to it. This route also took me through some really gorgeous scenery along the Klickitat River west of Goldendale. It was a very beautiful drive. As soon as I got out of my van at the Gnatcatcher site, I heard that buzzing song of the bird! What a treat! Two rare birds in one day - and the Flammulated Owl the previous night!
I kept pushing my luck by driving up the Wahkiacus Heights Road. I stopped wherever there was a pullout (not too many of these) and listened intently for the “churr” calls of these clown-faced birds. No luck. I tried for an hour or so - and no luck. Hey, at least I got the rare birds!
After this great birding day, I drove back to Brooks Memorial State Park (wishing I had not booked Saturday night there, instead staying at a place closer to Wahkiacus so I could try for the Acorn the next morning) for a really nice night at camp. I stopped at a really interesting Greek Orthodox Monastery bakery really close to the campground. Inside were a flock of nuns dressed in their habits selling all sorts of delicious Greek-oriented food and pastries. I got some baklava, some cheese cakes, and pita bread with hummus. I took a shower and enjoyed a Manhattan next to my Solostove Mesa XL - a great vanlife companion while munching on the hummus! While listening to the Common Nighthawks calling, I also noticed the really cool “hoooov” display sound that males make as they are diving back down to earth. I don’t know if I’d ever noticed that before - and a sound which I’ll now remember!
St. John’s Greek Monastery - Bakery near Brooks Memorial State Park
Sunday morning, I woke up and had freeze-dried biscuits and gravy with coffee for breakfast. The Mountain House version of this classic breakfast wasn’t too bad, actually! With a full belly, I hiked around the campground and walked around the “Big Old Fir” trail which was a gentle 1.5 or so mile trail through the forest to a large Doug Fir tree. The birds were pretty nice in this forest, too: Pileated Woodpecker, Cooper’s Hawks, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Western Wood Pewees, Ash-throated Flycatchers. And, yet, still no Acorn Woodpeckers (though some of the forest was Oak). I was content with the morning. Back towards the campground area, many of the butterflies had “woken up” (or opened up?) and were fluttering around. I bought a butterfly book a couple weeks ago - after the Wenas trip where I learned a little bit about these insects. So, now, I want to spend a bit more time studying and looking at these beautiful creatures. Let’s see how that goes!
It was mid-morning, so I got in the now-packed-up van and drive back to Satus Pass area (where I had seen the Flammulated Owls) and tried for another rare bird - the Thick-billed subspecies of the Fox Sparrow. Apparently, that area has had some nesting birds of the years, so I thought I’d try my luck with these. After getting back onto the Bureau of Indian Affairs road leading up to that old ski area, I stopped my van at a pull-out because a bird was singing in the distance that I couldn’t identify. I got out and pulled out my handy Merlin app - and it took a bit for it to figure out that the bird was a Fox Sparrow! And, I listened through the various songs of the Fox Sparrow subspecies on the Sibley iOS app. Sure enough, the bird singing in real life had the exact same song as the Thick-billed Fox-sparrow subspecies on Sibley! I recorded the bird and called it in with the recordings. I showed up pretty instantaneously, so I grabbed some photos when it would pop out of the bushes. A nearby Spotted Towhee was also agitated with me as it had a bill full of butterflies (likely going to its nest to feed). I figured I’d bothered these lovely birdies enough, so I walked back to the van and drove further up the gravel road and stopped a few more times to check out birds, butterflies, and flowers.
In a single weekend, I found a White-eyed Vireo far outside its normal range, listened to Flammulated Owls calling in the darkness of Satus Pass, added a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, explored a new corner of Washington, and came home even more excited for the upcoming Olympic Peninsula adventure.
