Wenas Creek

Excited to get away form that cold, God-forsaken forest, we decided to do some real birding at Wenas Creek (pronounced weenis). We got hela lost in Ellensburg (number of times lost so far = 2). On the way, we made love to Umtanum road (pair of sage thrashers, 3 white-headed woodpeckers, dozens of bluebirds, and a hybrid Dusky/Sooty grouse displaying form a tree). Unlike the dismal damp, cold, snowy forest north of Cle Elum, Wenas Creek was a spring paradise. Flowers were blossoming, birds were singing. A calliope hummingbird zipped by. With white woodpecker heads rolling in out path, we now sought a strange green and pink woodpecker that thinks it’s a flycatcher: the Lewis’s. As we were turning back to the car, I spied the bird flying from a snag half a kilometer away up a hill. We mounted the hill, laid siege on its parapet and saw the heck out of it.