Nine of us met at the MVSTA parking lot yesterday and car pooled up to Pearrygin State Park. At the parking lot I saw two Pygmy Nuthatches in the pines overlooking the ice rink and a Turkey Vulture roosting across the river. It was comfortably cool but by the time we were were walking at the park, the sun had warmed considerably. Summer is finally, really here. We went into the park at the south entrance and walked toward the south end of the lake which is less developed, having only one group camping site and lots of good trees and shrubs for bird finding. Surprisingly, most of us never go there due to the pressure from all the campers and boaters at Pearrygin. We birded for about 2 1/2 hours with the highlights being a Yellow-headed Blackbird (uncommon in the Methow) and a Yellow-breasted Chat. There were lots of observations of singing Lazuli Buntings and also a few Gray Catbirds. On the lake we saw a group of six Pied-billed Grebes, probably a family group although they were all about the same size. Still lots of wildflowers blooming. Juliet Rhodes photographed this mariposa lily, a flower most of us had never seen in the Methow.
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Here is the list of birds we observed for the morning.
Mallard
Pied-billed Grebe
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Unidentified gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Eastern Kingbird - at a nest
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee - heard
House Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
American Goldfinch
The next Bird Walk in the Methow is August 9th, although I'm up for going anytime. We meet at the MVSTA parking lot next to the fitness center at 7:30 am.
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3 comments:
Sounds like a great trip. Interesting your comment that many folks had not seen Mariposa lilies in the Methow Valley-- we get them every year on our property (between Winthrop and Twisp). Saw my first one of the year last week, and now they are popping up all over the place! Seems surreal to see such a lovely, delicate flower appear in such dry, rugged shrub-steppe terrain.
They are amazing to see among the sagebrush and grasses at this time of year. I used to see them alot around Banks Lake and Dry Falls areas and have missed them.
In recent days I have seen the Mariposa Lillies in two other places - up above our house near our regular dog walking trail - first time we've seen them here in two years and up at Sun Mountain - lots of them up above the lodge.
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