I think my car could drive itself to Jameson Lake. My vehicle (whichever one I owned at the time) has taken us there so many times over the past two decades, I think there is a kinetic energy that knows where to go.
We headed to the south end of Jameson to see what new spring residents had arrived. When we were there in January, and exited the coulee, we discovered what we believed to possibly be a new Prairie Falcon (PRFA) nest site. As we were driving south, not far from the intersection with US 2, a PRFA flew directly in front of us, up to the basalt face, and into a hole in the rock wall. We stopped the car and I got out to take a picture of the wall where the PRFA flew. That picture also gave us the GPS coordinates, so when we came back we could find the location.
As we headed out to Jameson Lake this morning, we wondered if we would see the same falcon again. We found the spot in the basalt where we had seen it before and pulled over and stopped along the side of the road. One good thing about the Jameson Lake Road is that if it is not fishing season, no one is there. Once fishing season starts, it’s another story.
We parked the car, turned off the engine and got out of the car with our binoculars. We could see the PRFA flying against the basalt. As we looked up into the sky, we could see two birds soaring high above us. Our binoculars told us that they were both Red-tailed hawks, and they were being pursued by a smaller falcon-type bird. Eventually they came down closer to us and we could see that the Red-taileds were being harassed by an American Kestral (AMKE). Eventually, we saw a second AMKE and figured they must have an nest in the wall and were unhappy with the Red-taileds being around. As we stood there watching them all, we also noticed three Says Phoebes flitting around, in and out of the sagebrush.
We headed up to the lake. Just as you approach the lake, there is a cattle guard, and if you hit it going too fast it makes a tremendous racket so that all the water fowl in that part of the lake flee to the opposite shore where you can barely see them. So I slowed down and slowly rolled over the cattle guard.
There was a good variety of ducks in the lake, Ringnecks, Scaups, Ruddys, Common Merganzers, and American Wigeons, to name a few.
Along with them, a few Canada geese, a couple Pied-billed grebes, about 30 swallows flying high overhead, and the ever present multitude of American Coots.
As we approached the little pull out that is a WDFW camping spot, we saw an older man sitting with his camper and his dog looking at the basalt wall with binoculars. I had to stop and ask him if he knew where the PRFA nest was. The nest I was referring to was the one by the lake where we were, not the one back down by the entrance. He did not know where the nest was so I pointed it out to him. We knew there were PRFAs around. That spot has been an active nesting spot for at least the last three years.
The man was interesting to talk to. He was from the Bellingham area and told us his dog was an Alaskan Husky and he was 16 years old. SIXTEEN! He said that in the dog’s younger years he had been a sled dog and had raced in two Iditarods.
As we were standing there talking to him an Eagle came flying down the coulee overhead, circled around us and headed east. We got a good look at him and decided he was a third year sub-adult Bald Eagle. Pretty exciting.
As we stood there observing, two PRFAs came flying in, back-and-forth across and over the basalt.
As we watched them, we discovered a totally new nest, and another spot that looked like it had been used as a nest.
As we were wondering if they had changed the nest location, one of the PRFAs flew back to the old nest location. It stuck around for a few minutes and then left again and flew away.
We wondered if maybe they hadn’t decided yet on where to settle and were checking out the real estate.
We drove up to Jack’s Resort (which is still closed) and to the locked gate and observed that section of the lake for a while. The gate won’t be opened until the end of the month when fishing season begins.
As we went to leave and return home, we stopped to talk to the gentleman again and tell him where we had seen the PRFAs on what looked like a new nest. He had been watching them with his binoculars and had discovered the same location. As we were talking to him an Osprey came in! The first one we have seen this year. He flew right over us, took a nose dive into the lake and came up with a fish! The wind was really blowing hard and that Osprey had quite a time to get up with the fish and take off flying. But eventually he gained some altitude and took off.
As we drove south out of the area we slowed down past the southern basalt wall where we had seen the previous birds. We spotted the little Kestrel sitting on some sagebrush watching us go by.