Looking for Loons

We came to the north of Washington State for several reasons. We had never spent much of any time in this part of the state, it appeared from research there might be some wonderful country here to explore, and we might find some interesting birds including Common Loons. So let’s take a look around for some Loons.

This is a map of our route on June 13th. The circuitous route ended up being about 105 miles in total. The route passes through some fascinating country from extensive apple and fruit tree orchards along the Okanagan River to open, rolling grass lands, to lush conifer forests.

Our first stop was at Bonaparte Lake. There is a Resort located on the lake as well as a Forest Service Campground on the west end. About half of the sites in the campground can be reserved while the remainder are first come first serve. There is water available at the campground and pit toilets but no other amenities. It seems a nicely done campground in decent condition.

We stopped first at the little boat ramp in the campground and saw this female mallard shielding her young from the warm sun. There ended up being 7 ducklings hiding in the shade.

At one point the ducklings decided to disperse and here is mom and one of the kids going for a walk. We thought this a cute image with both of them in lock step.

Here we are at the Resort. It would be considered rustic in nature. There are cabins and boats for rent, gasoline available, and RV sites with full hookups and a restaurant in the main building you see here. The food in the restaurant was absolutely fabulous as we found out. Well worth the decision to have lunch here.

We are on the back deck waiting for lunch to be served. The cabins are called “Rustic Cabins”. The communal restroom is behind these little cottages. They are, as evidenced by the image, close to the lake shore.

While we were eating lunch and admiring the view of the lake this Tree swallow joined us. It did not seem interested in begging for some handouts rather needed a rest from all the flying and foraging for bugs in the warm sun. There were a lot of swallows and swallow houses. We saw Violet Green and Barn Swallows in addition to the many Tree swallows.

Off to the left of this image, as the lake extends west towards the campground, there is a shallow area surrounded by open water. The shallow area has a bunch of reeds growing and we heard a Loon calling from that area. We asked the young waitress about the Loons and she said they are nesting in that area and can be seen swimming out in the lake in the early mornings and evenings. It was really neat to hear the loon calling.

We headed back to Highway 20 and over to Old Wauconda and up towards Bodie. Bodie is just a Ghost Town and there is not much of anything at Old Wauconda. We stopped at a wide spot, heading up towards Lake Beth to look for birds and found this Willow Flycatcher. It did a decent job posing for us so we took it’s picture.

Beaver Lake and Lake Beth are adjacent. There used to be a campground at Beaver but it is closed. There is a campground, quite extensive, at Lake Beth. It is a no service other than water campground but has a lot of sites. Looking at this map image we found the Loons on the farthest east end of Beaver Lake. Birds do move so they might not be there later.

Here is the area of Beaver Lake where the Loons were located. You can actually see one as a white dot out in the center of the lake in this image.

Here is a Common Loon and its two chicks. They were swimming around and gathering grasses for food.

Often one or the other adult would dive and come back to the surface not very distant. They would then swim together for a while before one or both of them would dive again.

This shows all four of the family. They swam around quite a bit and the kids seem to keep up without any problem. But then I am sure the adults were keeping them close.

This last image just provides another view of the family. We watched them for quite a bit with no other person very close. They did not seem bothered by our presence. It was most fascinating to watch them.

We hope you enjoyed following along for our Looking for Loons. We had a great lunch, found some neat birds, and had a great time, wish you could have been here. When you do come up to this part of Washington be sure and head out on your own adventure “Looking for Loons”

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