Looking Around and a Few Birds

Here are a few images of places to see around here and some bird friends that will be awaiting your arrival. Be sure and come up here to the northern part of Washington State - It is a Great Place.

This Ring-necked Duck actually has a ring around it's neck. Not very often do we get a chance to see the ring for which it was named. We were surprised at how much of the neck the ring covers. And no the grass frond across his back is not a duck leash to which he is tied for the picture, rather it is part of the natural environment and was going to be part of his lunch.

At Teal Lake, along one of the back roads we traveled there were Bufflehead and chicks. It seemed to be a popular lake for Bufflehead as there were several batches of moms and kids on the lake. One group, a bit more distant, had twelve ducklings.

We had mentioned the town of Chesaw in an earlier post. These are two of the main buildings in Chesaw, a Tavern and place to eat is on the left and General Store on the right. There is also a small set of gas pumps associated with the store and there is a mercantile about a block up the street and a couple of buildings associated with the Rodeo Grounds. There are not many businesses in Chesaw. The name Chesaw was derived from an early Chinese resident named Chee Saw who had a trading post in the area.

Across the road from the tavern are the Rodeo Grounds. Each July 4th they have a rodeo. The lady in the store, whom we chatted with, indicated that last year they sold over 5,000 tickets and that attendance count does not include the children under 10 who get in free. We had heard it was a really big and wild time. The big dance is on July 3rd and gets things kicked off.

We have seen a lot of swallows in the area, they are everywhere. This was a decent image of two of the swallows resting from the foraging flights.

Molson is a historic town up in the hills to the east of Oroville. There is a museum there and quite a few buildings along with a number of homes and residences. The large brick structure in the right side of this image is an old school that was built in 1914. There were a lot more people in Molson back then.

This was in front of a wetland area as we came down the hill and before we turned towards Molson and someone there has a good sense of humor. I don’t think there is even a lifeguard in the nearby area much less on or off duty

Molson is close to the border with Canada. A short distance up the road from Molson is this sign marking the original site of Sidley. This also demonstrates a dramatic difference between the Southern and Northern Borders. Directly behind this sign is Canada. There is no border crossing right here but we are told there are motion sensors in the area so it is best to stay out. We have seen some number of Border Patrol Vehicles but nothing near what is evident on the Southern Border.

The gravel road, from just a little past Molson for quite a ways, follows an old railroad grade from the early to mid-1900. In many place they routed the road off of some of the grade while in places such as seen here the road just went through the old cut in the rocks. It is narrow but certainly passable.

We paused along the road to look down towards Oroville. We climbed quite a bit to get up to Chesaw and Molson, now we are heading back down. There is a lot of rolling somewhat steep grasslands and many extensive forests up higher.

We are always surprised by the bright blue bill of the male Ruddy Duck. On one lake there were a lot of Ruddy’s and they did not seem at all bothered by our presence. Many were right next to the road and stayed there when we stopped to take pictures.

This is a view across Lost Lake which is about 6 miles above Bonaparte Lake. There was a pair of Common Loons on the Lake with two chicks. There is also a great Forest Service Campground next to the lake and some number of homes scattered around. This is almost 4,000 feet in elevation so you would snowmobile to your home in winter.

We were out looking around on Friday and found this Meadowlark. It had some bugs in its beak and was heading to the growing family to provide a snack. What surprised us was, as it was sitting on the post, it started singing away, that distinct Meadowlark sound even with all those bugs. This was certainly a multitalented Meadowlark.

We have seen a lot of old cabin type structures in our travels here in Okanogan County. This was very close to the Canadian Border and unfortunately no information was available at the site. Throughout the county the Okanogan Historical Society has placed many placards with information describing various sites and or events. They are very well done and extremely useful. This old cabin seems to have been here for a very long time.

We saved a decent image for last. When we drove from Chesaw to Molson we went past Fields Lake, one of our favorite birding spots. The wind was blowing very hard, it was cold and we concluded we would not see much. Then we noticed this Red-naped Sapsucker. The pair were feeding young and went in and out of the cavity quite frequently. What is not seen in this image is that about two feet below this nest hole is a Tree Swallow nest, in the same tree and they were busily feeding young as well. We never could get them both feeding in the same image. The Tree Swallow would fly into the small hole at full speed, amazing to watch.

The Okanagan County and the wildlife around here are both fascinating and amazing. The food is great at some of the small back country eateries and the history of the area is worth researching. Be sure and make the time to get up here for a thorough look around, it will be well worth the effort. We rather much like this country.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna