Vacation 2016 - Starting in Washington

We started our vacation a little earlier than originally expected. We did not make our first stop until we reached Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park. We walked a little around their visitors center. We didn’t do any real trail, but we did look at their petroglyphs. Part of the reason for this laziness was the warm weather. I have a feeling that this could become a common theme.


Our target for the day was Potholes State Park. We set up camp, then we went on a quick exploration of the area. We were going to visit Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, but my driver was not comfortable with the road conditions. We took a consolation of a public access point to Potholes Reservoir. Although there wasn’t a real trail there, I turned this into my first birding checklist.

We decided to take Plan B for Columbia NWR.  We headed south and hit Drumheller Channels. I did not count birds at that stop. We also felt that we weren’t going to get any good trails unless we went on that road that had already been rejected. Instead, we headed back to camp and did one of our campground walks. I kept a checklist there as well.

I want the bulk of my wildlife sightings to be recorded in eBird checklists. There were a number of species that I only saw from the car or during some quick stops. Species that I have seen but not properly recorded include: Common Raven, Red-tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Chipmunk, Osprey, Mourning Dove, Magpie, Northern Flicker, and Canada Geese.