Girlfriend Birding Weekend
After being cooped up for over a year without really interacting with friends, it was high time to get out of Seattle for the weekend. It started when my friend, Valerie, emailed me and asked about birding locations in eastern Washington. I asked if I could join her and soon, it wasn’t just me, but Heidi and Leilani as well.
Heidi and Leilani drove together and left on Thursday (March 25th). Valeria rode with me and we left Friday morning. We would meet up at Potholes State Park, where we planned to camp that evening.
On the way to Potholes, I stopped at the Wild Horses Monument (aka Grandfather Cuts the Ponies) and we hiked to the top. The trail is short, but very steep with a lot of loose dirt and stones. I had hiked it once before in 2020, right before everything shut down due to the pandemic.
We made a couple of other stops (Birding Corner and County Line Ponds) before heading to the state park. A quick stop on the way at the Othello Visitor Center gave us an evening plan (I also bought a painting of some sandhill cranes). But first, we needed to get our tents set up and find Heidi and Leilani.
While we were setting up our tents, Heidi and Leilani showed up. We told them about some evening locations to check out that were recommended by the woman at the Visitor Center.
We were running about 30 minutes behind, but managed to find a flock of sandhill cranes near the Skooteney Reservoir. They were a bit away from our vehicles, but we managed to at least get some photos.
Instead of cooking dinner, Valerie and I wanted burgers and stopped at McDonald’s before heading back to camp. Heidi and Leilani opted to stay in town and eat at a Mexican restaurant.
That night I froze my butt off! I had gotten a new air mattress and it didn’t have as much flocking on the top, so the cold temperature outside made the air in the mattress equally cold. I tried sleeping in my car for a few hours, but my back started to hurt. I put on an additional sweatshirt, pulled the hood over my head and crawled back into the sleeping bag in the tent. The wind had settled down, so it wasn’t quite as cold until around 6am, when the birds woke me up.
After a tasty breakfast of berry granola with rice milk, we loaded our cars and headed out to explore some other birding locations.
At the second place we tried, we ran into a herd of cattle being moved to a yard with chutes (probably to tag and vaccinate the new babies). I couldn’t believe I was stuck by a cattle drive just eight months after the last one in Goldendale!
Saturday was kind of a bust for getting good shots of birds, but we did have fun enjoying the scenery…and I had fun talking to Valerie and getting to know her better.
We spent Saturday night at the Sun Lake Resort (which is right next to the state park). Leilani had rented a cabin for us, so I had a bed and blanket. I was looking forward to getting a better night’s sleep!
Valeri and I left on Sunday morning, before the other two. We wanted to get over Snoqualmie Pass before a snow storm was due to hit (around 1pm). As we drove out of the resort, we got lucky and saw a male and female quail! They are such cute little birds.
Before going over the pass, we drove along the Bluebird Trail near Ellensburg, where we were told the Western and Mountain bluebirds were were starting to nest. We were so glad we did this drive…it was one of the best birding moments of the weekend!
Over a hundred nesting boxes are erected every few feet (started in the 1970s, I believe). There was all kinds of bird action and we were delighted to see both species of bluebirds.
Too soon, we had to head out to get over the pass. As we climbed to it, the wind and rain really picked up. There were some wind gusts that felt like it was going to blow my car out of my lane! We made it over the pass and down the other side just as it was starting to turn from rain to snow at the top.
It really felt good to spend time with my friends and do something we all enjoyed. I can’t wait to do another one!
