Raptor Ramblings – February 2022 – Coulee City

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The lights were on, but no one was home!

It started out as a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine. So, the lights were on in the lower part of the Grand Coulee. But there didn’t seem to be anyone around! It seemed like either everyone was hunkered down or they were over visiting the neighbors! Even after stopping at multiple pull-outs and looking in all of the windows in this 20 mile long, coulee-corridor, house, there didn’t seem to be any visible raptors. We scanned the fields, scanned the basalt walls, scanned the sky over and over again. All of that activity yielded one Rough-legged Hawk. 

When you are standing on the coulee floor, the ridge top of the basalt cliffs is very far away! You look for a little bump along the ridge line, or perhaps a bird flying in front of the basalt. As we reached the south end of Alkali Lake, it did seem like there was a bump on the top of the ridge line. I pulled out my binoculars, but could not ID it, other than it was a bird – a good sized one. So I pulled out my camera and took some photos, hoping that when I got back to my computer and enlarged them, I could make a firm identification. And sure enough! We had a Golden Eagle!

It was hard to spot a tiny “bump” on the top of that ridge line!
A 500mm lens brought it a little closer.

For the entire day we did not see one American Kestrel, Bald Eagle, or Northern Harrier! I thought for sure with the sunlight we would see more activity. But not so!

All of the lakes in the Lower Coulee are still frozen over. They are beautiful to look at! The snow really hasn’t diminished a whole lot since last month.

Narrow leaf willow along Blue Lake adds color to the winter landscape.
Shore ice sculptures along the frozen water.

Up on the flat farmland, east of Coulee City there was still a lot of snow. And the roads that were not plowed last month are still not plowed this month, more or less. There were a couple secondary roads that someone had driven on.  But they did not entice me enough to chance getting stuck up there in the middle of nowhere.

High power transmission lines march across the fields from Grand Coulee Dam.

There is a cool, old abandoned barn south of Hartline. A couple of months ago, Amanda and I stopped and walked in a bit, and saw a Great-horned Owl take off from inside the barn. We actually saw him two months in a row. But, he did not show himself today.

Abandoned farm which houses a Great-horned Owl nest.

Here is a summary of what was seen today.

Red-tailed Hawk 5
Rough-legged Hawk 7
Golden Eagle 1