Birding on the Road

Joe Meche is vice president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is in his 10th year as editor of the chapter newsletter. Joe is also a member of the board of directors of the Washington Brant Foundation. He has been photographing birds and landscapes for over 30 years and has been watching birds for more than 50 years.

Road trips are not for everyone. It seems that most would prefer to fly and spend more time at their destination, or perhaps there’s less time to get away and flying is more expeditious. To some of us, however, there’s nothing like a good road trip when time allows. The pace of the road is yours to dictate in most cases, and you have time to really see and feel the country you travel through; all the while gaining new perspectives from the sights and sounds you experience along the way. The most important and perhaps unexpected benefit comes in the appreciation of the place you call home.

To embark on a cross-country journey in late February understandably requires a bit of preparation, especially if you’re driving. The logistics and mechanical considerations are a given, as is the necessary assortment of clothing. And don’t forget the mental preparation. Our road trip took us down through the Pacific states and the desert Southwest, across the seemingly endless expanse of Texas and finally into south Louisiana. While the motivation for the trip was to visit relatives, and having made this journey before, I also looked forward to the birds we’d encounter along the way.

We left behind the winter sightings of snowy owls and loons in the Pacific Northwest, and before long, the seasons seemed to change and spring and sunshine and warmer temperatures greeted us we motored south and east. The changes in the avifauna left no doubt that we were away from our own home range, and the appearance of numerous great egrets and white-faced ibises reminded us of the wintering birds of the Sacramento Valley. One magpie that we glimpsed on the wing—while we were on the fly—could well have been the elusive yellow-billed variety that is specific to this area.

Of course, when you’re birding at 70 miles per hour, it’s most difficult to have a good look at anything. However, there is a unique opportunity to hone your identification skills while getting into the rhythm of the road. Even at Interstate speed, there was no mistaking the beautiful ferruginous hawk perched on a wayside fencepost, along with numerous American kestrels and red-tailed hawks. As we proceeded southward, there was a marked increase in the number of turkey vultures, bouncing along in their inimitable style of soaring.

Rest areas and refueling stops provided possibilities, as well, to see new birds along the way. As we turned eastward, common grackles took the place of Brewer’s blackbirds in fast food parking lots and the ubiquitous house sparrows and starlings proved to be just that, and more. As we drove across the dry country of the Mojave Desert late on our second evening, the most startling observation was the endless stream of headlights heading down Interstate 15 from Sodom and Gomorrah… a.k.a. Las Vegas. The appeal of which will always escape me, but the different strokes adage still applies, I guess.

In just two days, the magnificent greenery and glacier-clad peaks of northwest Washington had given way to saguaro and prickly pear cactus, bare rock and Joshua trees. Into our third day on the road, someone turned up the heat in the Texas Panhandle and kept the thermostat on high through Oklahoma and into the more tolerable late-evening coolness in central Louisiana. We had driven through a lot of country in four days and made a long list of places that reaffirmed the appreciation we feel about the place we call home.

As I found on a previous trip several years ago, the greeting committee in my home state was comprised primarily of northern mockingbirds, blue jays and northern cardinals. The mockingbirds were singing when we arrived late that night and were at it again in the morning. Throughout our visit, they were busy doing what they do so well and brought back a flood of fond memories of an all-time favorite bird. I had returned to my roots.

On the first morning off the road, a soft breeze and wind chimes made the first cup of coffee that much sweeter and the rampant bird song was delightful. The mockingbirds, cardinals and jays were busy calling and singing along with the calls of mourning doves and red-bellied woodpeckers. A Philadelphia vireo paid a visit to the old oak tree in the side yard while the hanging feeder attracted a tufted titmouse and a pair of Carolina chickadees. Across the road, grackles were foraging in a neighbor’s front yard. It was a veritable cacophony of bird song.

After four days on the road, you might expect or even require a day to sit and recover. It wasn’t to be however, since the local weatherman warned of impending thunderstorms in the next day or two. With the weather in mind, I didn’t want to miss a single opportunity. I knew that we had to make at least a cursory trip to a favorite haunt to check on the status of the large rookery at Lake Martin, a classic lake swamp just south of the Crawfish Capital of the World, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

That initial visit sealed the deal that I would return at sunrise the following two days, and the rewards were plenty. Our first sunrise rewarded us with good looks at a typical southeastern barred owl. On the second day, he posed and provided good photo ops, as did a female red-shouldered hawk and a nesting red-bellied woodpecker.

It seems that the rookery at Lake Martin has been discovered by many birders in recent years and the number of early-morning visitors confirmed it. A road runs around a third of lake and provides close-up viewing of many of the larger wading birds. Most of the attention, and rightfully so, seemed to be focused (pun intended) on the nesting roseate spoonbills. These spectacularly strange-looking birds were beautiful winging their way to the nesting trees against the bright blue Louisiana sky.

Other large birds that can be found in the rookery are great egrets, great blue herons, double-crested cormorants, anhingas, little blue herons and yellow-crowned night herons. We were a little early in the nesting season and I can only imagine how busy the place will be in the next month or two. As an added sighting, we also counted more than a dozen large alligators. Lake Martin has some gators that reach 12 to 14 feet in length. It’s a jungle in there!

After five full days of relatives and more relatives, we were back on the road with southeast Arizona on our mind. We passed some of the areas affected by Hurricane Rita and saw many of the infamous FEMA blue tarps covering numerous housetops. Roadside windfall made it obvious that something had happened but birds along the way seemed to be doing okay. Our motorized Waltz Across Texas was smooth and uneventful and the heat of the previous week had been replaced by cooler temps and a strong northwest breeze. We made quick work of El Paso and bid the Lone Star State farewell.

We enjoyed the unique town of Bisbee, Arizona, and spent time at the Nature Conservancy’s Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. We saw beautiful vermillion flycatchers and numerous chipping sparrows at the preserve but it seemed as though winter still ruled. Again, the scene will be quite different in a month or so. The following day found us on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. No amount of writing or photographs can do the canyon justice, so I won’t try to do it here. I will say that if you haven’t been there, go. And if you’re able, hike down to the river.

As I prowled the south rim in the cold, biting wind, I was treated to the company of mountain chickadees and the gray-headed variety of dark-eyed juncos that frequent the southern Rocky Mountain states. Also present, as they were on the entire trip, were crows and ravens. It seems that those two birds, as common as they might be, seemed to tie the ends of our road trip together.

It might seem like a lot of work, but if you’re able, consider a road trip while we still have enough fossil fuel to allow us the joy of seeing the country and a few good birds. The day will come when we will be forced to stay closer to home. As evidenced by what we saw, the consumption is going full-speed and perhaps one day I’ll rant from the top of my soapbox, but not today—I’m still mellow from a wonderful road trip. §

It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes,
Nothing remains quite the same.
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands,
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.