Wenas
The 61st Annual Wenas Audubon campout was held the weekend after Memorial Day 2026. The organizing group made the date switch (to be the week following Memorial Day) a few years ago to minimize conflict with the growing number of off-road vehicle/ATV users in that area.
After my great day of birding in Kittitas and Grant counties, I made my way up into the central Cascades to join the group of fellow birders from around the state (though the vast majority were from west of the Cascade Crest).
The Wenas campground is a really pretty location set in a Ponderosa forest with an elevation of around 2500’. The focus of this campout is birds, bugs, plants, and new this year - rocks! It was great to catch up with birders who I hadn’t seen in some time - many for a year or so. After joining the introductory evening “campfire” meet-up (no campfire), I returned to Merlin for an early slumber. I had been up since 5 AM, so a quiet evening was in order.
I slept quite well that first night. Saturday morning, I arose to the birdsong all around me - Western Tanager, Cassin’s Finch, Yellow Warblers, Chipping Sparrows were out in full force. It was lovely. It was cool outside - low 40s, so I cracked the van door open a bit to have a better listen to the birds while I had coffee and breakfast. I decided to join one of the smaller field trips - which explored the campground area. I didn’t want to drive my van anywhere as I had a great campsite in this dispersed campground. The campground field trip was great! I helped lead the trip and used some of my bird sound skills with the other newer birders in the group. We had a great trip walking all around the campground area - including up and down the little North Fork Wenas Creek. Highlights included seeing a nesting Red-breasted Sapsucker, nesting Hammond’s Flycatcher, and a White-headed Woodpecker (which was high on my list!).
Female White-headed Woodpecker - a specialty of the Wenas area
After the field trip, it was lunchtime, so I sat around my campsite area with lunch before taking a lovely restful nap in the van. Since it was fairly cool outside, it was a nice relaxing nap under the shade of the pines. By mid-afternoon, I walked around the campground again and talked with some of the fellow birders. I decided to join a butterfly walk led by a local butterfly/moth expert - David Droppers - who has led classes and field trip with Birds Connect Seattle, amongst other places. About 30 people joined the butterfly walk - including quite a few very excited kids. It was fun to see them run round with the nets collecting butterflies to put into jars for further examination (then release!). Before this trip, I honestly hadn’t paid too much attention to butterflies - and now I must say I am really interested. I even ordered a field booklet - Butterflies of Washington - to help with future adventures!
Upon return back to the campground after the butterfly walk, I made dinner then joined the "campfire circle” (again, no campfire - for fear of wildfires) to hear the general announcements, roll call (each Audubon chapter in WA shouts out their attendance), and a talk about Northern Hawk Owls. After the talk, I decided to join the evening Owl Prowl - but, unfortunately, so did about 75 other people. Literally. An enormous amount of people were interested in trying to see/hear some of the local owls, so we all left in a walk towards the “Dry Creek” area near the campground. The group was so big, that it divided into 3 - each of which had 20-30 people. The group I was in was not really quiet, and so there were zero owls to be heard. We did hear Common Nighthawks and Common Poorwills…but no owls. After an hour of two of no owls (but, lots of human talking), I decided to join a few folks who had decided to walk back to camp. Being around 10:30 PM, it was pretty dark out, so I figured “safety in numbers”. Back in the van at camp, I quickly went to bed peacefully. And, I didn’t hear any owls overnight, either.
Sunday morning, I slept in a bit - until 6:30 am. A group was doing a hike up Hardy Canyon at 8 AM. I decided to join that - which meant packing up the van and headed about 15 mins out of camp to the meet-up spot. It worked out well, as it was more or less on my way out of camp. The hike was really fun. We broke up into two groups of about 20 people each, and I helped “lead” one of them. We looked/listed as the birds and also the butterflies and flowers. What a really nice hike it was up this beautiful canyon. Highlights for me included seeing a nesting pair of American Kestrels going in and out of their nesting cavity in a snag. The male would go out and find a bug or food, bring it back to the cavity, then the female would go out and do the same. Upon her return, the male would go out once again. This was fun to watch and explain to some of the others how to differentiate between the two (the males with their slate blue sides and the females being more reddish). Another highlight was seeing and hearing my first Gray Catbird of the year. We didn’t see any rattlesnakes, although they are apparently quite regular on this trail.
Eastern Kingbird at Hardy Canyon
After the hike, I got back in Merlin and drove up N. Wenas Road to try and get some woodpeckers and any other birds. The route was particularly birdy! I stopped a few times to get out and listen at the many birds all up and down that route. This road goes into burned Ponderosa pine forest and then emerges near Ellensburg in a nice Sagesteppe habitat. At one pull-out, I asked a couple of birders what they were looking at - and they pointed out a recently-fledged Great-horned Owl - so that was a treat!
Recent reports of a Black-backed Woodpecker near “Railroad Ponds” in Cle Elum caught my attention. So, I pointed the van in that direction and made it to the ponds. A birder who I met at the WOS conference a couple weeks back was just outside his car looking at something with his binoculars. I rolled down my window and asked if he’d seen the woodpecker. Indeed, he had…and offered to drive me to where he had seen it! (Thanks, Scott!!). I gladly accepted and I followed him about 1/8 of a mile to a small pullout where he had seen the BBWO about 10-15 previously. His friend, he and I talked for a bit about birds and what we’d been seeing lately before they returned to their journey (they were going owling around Liberty area) and left me to my luck with the woodpecker. I listened and walked around the area. Lots of Western Wood Pewees, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Western Tanagers - and a family of Hairy Woodpeckers. But, no Black-backeds. At least for a short while… after about 20-25 mins of walking around and I did try calling them in a few times… I heard that “kyik” sound of a Black-backed!! And, sure enough, one of them flew right over my head to a nearby short tree. The other one followed suit. It turns out, it was a breeding pair and I got their copulation IN ACTION on camera! How cool was that?!
Black-backed Woodpeckers - in copulation
What a great finish to a wonderful weekend! I was thrilled to have seen these two woodpeckers. After spending maybe 10-15 more minutes observing the female (the male had flown away after the copulation - and the female went to a nearby burned out tree and began peeling bark), I headed out. On the way out, I saw a woman who was looking through her binoculars. I asked if she was looking for the Black-backs. She said yes, and I told her to try for them in the spot I was just in. Birders helping birders.
On the way home, traffic was OK until I got to about exist 32 or so - and then it came to zero miles per hour. WSDOT had closed the two right-hand lanes of I-90 (out of 4 total) at the Hwy 18 interchange which brought traffic leading up to Hwy 18 to a standstill. I took me about 3 hours to drive what should be about 2 hours from Cle Elum to Seattle. As they say - it is what it is! And, hopefully, the Hwy 18 interchange will be a good upgrade!
