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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Road Trips East Looking for Big Birds

Over the past couple of days, we forgot about our normal schedules and took a couple of road trips over the mountains into eastern Washington. Lest you think that our snow is gone, Dick took this photo up at the pass. I would guess that lots of folks will go skiing over spring break this year!
Skiing Anyone?
On Sunday we decided to drive over to Ellensburg for lunch and for old time's sake as our older daughter graduated from Central Washington University. During a four year span, we made many trips there. Enroute, we took a few side roads and checked out Easton, Rosyln of Twin Peaks fame, Cle Elum, and a new resort called Suncadia. But we forgot the camera, and worse yet, when we got home we read about the Sandhill Crane festival in Othello. So, yesterday we again hopped in the car on a quest to find some sandhill cranes. Until now we'd only seen them before in Florida and Wisconsin. In Othello a very nice lady at City Hall directed us to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge with the warning that the road was rather "primitive." That it was and slow going also.
We knew we were in the right spot!
Well, we saw a few bits of wildlife, a bunny, a couple of magpies, some mystery ducks, but not one sandhill crane. We decided they must have all been resting up from the previous weekend's festivities.
Scenery
Just in case you think that all it ever does in our fair state is rain, Dick took this photo. East of the Cascades the geography and weather are both very different. It is farm country, thanks to an adequate supply of water for irrigation. This is where our famous apples are grown along with lots of other things including wheat and hops.
What are you doing here?
Much to our surprise, we saw lots of cattle grazing in the refuge, including this critter who was lounging beside the road until we stopped. Since the afternoon was almost gone, and our teeth had been jarred loose by the primitive road, we decided to take a different route back to Othello, a road that crossed on the north side of the refuge. We drove a short way in on another turnoff which was a much better gravel road and then headed down another road toward highway 26. Guess what?

Dick was the first to spot them! We saw a huge flock fly in and land in a farmer's field right off the road, so we stopped to watch. I would guess we saw at least 50 of these big birds in the field, and I counted about 38 in the sky. Our bird books says they have a 6-7 foot wingspan, so that will give you a feel for their size.

Dick caught a few photos before they figured out what he was doing and took off. Our quest was over, and we headed home. After having dinner in Ellensburg at the same table where we ate lunch on Sunday, we headed back over the pass and none too soon. It was snowing hard at the Pass and the radio said they expected a foot of new snow by morning. Thankfully, at the time the snow wasn't sticking and quit about 17 miles east of North Bend. Today it's back to our usual routine.
Finally!

8 comments:

Ele said...

Dear Judy,
I sent you another mail, did you recieve?

Greeting from
Gabriele, expecting spring now! ;-)

Barbara C said...

It looks like some beautiful scenery, snow and all. I'm glad you caught up with your cranes.

Susan Elliott said...

Come on~ I think it was meant to be -- you decide to go home a different route and a HUGE flock just happens to fly about you and bless you with sandhill crane good luck...someone out there is looking out for you...

Wendy said...

Wow!! Blog land sure opens the windows to areas and climates one doesn't always think about. Living in the desert, snow is a bit of surprise whenever it happens- let alone seeing it in March. I love the pictures. God has made this world so beautiful!!!
Big Hugs,
Wendy

jane said...

What a great get away weekend. Thanks for sharing all your photos. We got your snow here in Minnesota the past 2 days! Jane

Kris Meares - Tag Along Teddies said...

Hey Judy! Boy you guys do get around and have lots of adventures! And isn't it always the way - you find what you're looking for when you're not actually looking! :0) Hope your weather becomes more spring-like soon so you can thaw out and forget what snow looks like for a while! Have a great weekend - Bear Hugs! KRIS

Wendy said...

You are so sweet!!! Ya, I guess I could just do that. I have a couple of blogs that I know that have a different header than url. About the header on the wandering rose blog: I simply opened microsoft Paint three times and cropped each picture in a different paint, then I copied the pictures all into one Paint and put them close together and then filled the outside with brown. Then you can also choose the size of the backdrop. You can't really do anything else to the pictures but crop them but it worked.
Wendy

Unknown said...

Your scenery is so pretty. That looks like a ton of sandhill cranes to me! Thanks for sharing the pix for those of us who may never get up there to see them in real life.