Skamania County Journal

Howdy!

This will be the only post for "Skamania County Birding" as I did my big-ish year in Skamania in 2023, along with Cowlitz, Clark, and Wahkiakum. Those are all documented at www.southwestwashingtonbirding.blogspot.com. But with all of the trips, I figured it would be nice to have at least one place where the Skamania trips were curated and collected in chronological order. So here we go!

January - I had plans to visit Skamania, but cold cold winds and poor roads led to a decision to focus on the other three counties. What a huge role weather played this year in Skamania!

February 6th and 7th - A Start in Skamania

60 species on what I thought was a rainy day. Ha! hahahahaha. 

March 12th - Clearly Not Merry Weather (Clark)

March 13th - Smart Enough to Come In Out of the Rain? (Skamania County)

Absolute misery! :D But some more birds. Cackling Goose, for example, is not a species that cares if it's raining, really. The yearlist went up to 73 at this point. 

April 19th-20th The Great Escape, Days 1 and 2

April 21st - The Great Escape, Day 3

Great trip, pushing me up to 94 species in Skamania. Here you'll find images of Mountain Bluebird and Ruffed Grouse like none that have been published before. Who would bother? This guy would. 

May 27/28th - Whistle Punk and Wind Mountain (Skamania County)

So. . . many. . . birds. I hit some amazing spots, and got warblers and flycatchers aplenty. Here, I was happy to come away with some decent warbler pics!

May 30th - Grouse Vista Trail, Clark County

I know - it says "Clark", but the trail actually continues into Skamania County (as I did) and up to Silver Star Mountain (as I did not, because of the snow on the trail). But hey, I added one more warbler: Townsend's.

September 5th - Skamania and Clark

Woodpeckers, some very late breeding birds (Cassin's Vireo and House Wren, both singing), a few sandpipers, and a Green Heron were the highlights of this trip. This one brought me to 140 for the year, which gave me a glimmer of hope that I could get to 150. 

September 22nd - Killen Creek Trail to the PCT

Wowzers: Cassin's Finch, Pine Grosbeak, Clark's Nutcracker, American Three-toed Woodpecker. . . lots of nice birds and some beautiful birds on a quick day trip. 

October 29th - November Trip, Day One

October 30th - November Trip, Day Two

October 31st - November Trip, Day 3

Battling the wind to add a final few birds for the year, ending (all but certainly) at 151. I don't think I'll make it down to Skamania again, but this was a fun fun year.