Lower South Fork Skokomish River Trail (Not a birding trip - 8/2)

Fingers of God - High Steel Bridge

High Steel Bridge sunrise

So this really wasn't a birding trip, and phew!  The birds cooperated with that plan, all in all!  I head out once a year or so with my son Declan and my nephew Dirk to get some XY chromosome time out in the woods with them.  It's usually somewhere where I'm hoping to see some new county birds, but not a place where finding those birds will take much of a focused effort. Usually the mountains call!  Being up at high elevation almost always means fewer birds, but more interesting ones. 

We thought we saw a path down from the bridge, but..

Banana slug

For the hike this year, we went with the Lower South Fork Skokomish River Trail.  That's a mouthful, and I need to say it slowly whenever it happens aloud!  We left at 5:30 AM from Renton, and with a stop at McDonalds (breakfast) and Hunter Farms (gathering up some snacks for the hike), we made it to the trailhead and were hiking by nine.  Hunter Farms was a good stop again - the fellow I keep talking to about owls has still been seeing the Barn Owls, and when I described a Northern Harrier, he said "Oh yeah, we've got lots of those."  So... that's a code 1 bird that I probably won't miss this year!

The Skokomish Valley was beautiful, and we made a quick stop at the High Steel Bridge, having a little fun reading the interesting art spraypainted here and there on the bridge and pavement, and tossing pebbles down to the water below.  I scanned the roads here and on the way up to the trailhead to look for Ruffed Grouse, but it wasn't to be found today!

Different perspective on tree size - Lower South Fork Skokomish Trail

Old Growth Western Hemlock

It took a while to find the trail-head.  In the end, we just accessed the trail from the LeBar Horse Camp.  It was easy walking, all in all, especially compared to some of the grinding hikes I've been on!  It was interesting noticing nature with the boys on a kind of off and on pace.  The old growth Western Hemlocks were amazing - there were times when we were surrounded by the giants - and the ferns, lichen and mosses also had our attention.  But at other times, they broke into talking about school, video games, what's wrong with Taylor Swift, and hobbits.  They were not, I will say, the quietest two people to go birding with!  That didn't keep it from being a perfect trip.

One highlight on the way in was a spot where I saw a raptor/owl sized bird fly into a tree ahead.  Just for kicks and grins, I went with my suspicions and did my Barred Owl call.  One of them flew from the tree and landed on a branch in pretty plain view, hissing angrily at me - not a vocalization I'd heard before!  The boys were pretty enthralled, but we did move along after a couple minutes. 

Gorgeous ferns - go ahead and tell me what they were

Ferns had my attention, and I will just put the pictures in.  I have drawn and studied ferns, and almost figured out how to identify them, but I've had enough rounds of that to give up and just enjoy how there are a lot of different ones! 

Mushrooms will fall into the same category, although for today, the only ones we seemed to find were latched onto the sides of trees - large bracket fungi. 

On the way back, we decided that a dip in the river would be lovely.  Declan nearly went in deeper than he had planned!  As he stepped into the shallow water, he unintentionally stepped over a little lip, and began to sliiiiiide.  The river bank in parts was almost entirely clay, and it took him a second to realize he was on his way in.  After a little soaking of the shorts, he came back up and we all got barefoot for a bit - skipping rocks, watching minnows, and looking for fish in the blue water.

Panorama on the camera, and some careful cropping - I think there are a few kinds of ferns here as well.

Our swimming hole was up past the fallen log

I had a flying insect land on me, and I brushed it off, thinking it was a yellowjacket.  Dirk had it land on him and mentioned that it was weird looking as he smacked it and it landed on the shore.  Please read the following to review my deepest fears.  They can be found in bold, a little ways down into the following excerpt from my 39 counties blog. 

http://www.39counties.blogspot.com/2011/07/big-ol-trip-day-seven.html

So... thank goodness I didn't interrupt our testosterone filled day with any screaming.  I collected the little guy and brought it home in a water bottle.  The best bets were that it was something in the genus tabanus, like a horsefly or deerfly.  Something more specific would be dandy, but I have a picture of the beast here for general interest and enjoyment.

The Beast - probably from genus tanabus

Bracket fungi

We left the water and hiked it back to the car, the only big nature-y thing that grabbed our attention after that was a spider.  I couldn't get a picture of the darn thing, but the easiest thing to see was that it had alternating white and black leg segments, with cryptic black and white markings on its body.  It did something I haven't seen from spiders before, striking a defensive posture when we tried to get closer to get a picture.  As with the fly, I'd be happy to have someone contact me to talk about it and identify it. 

I think identification will always be an important thing for me.  But why haven't I been sucked in to anything besides birds?  Why haven't I been throwing myself headlong at mushroom, dragonfly or fish identification?  I think if any of the above learned how to sing, it might be a different story.



A Common Nighthawk gave a daytime flyover before we got to the car, and we arrived at JR's Hideaway in Belfair famished - left satisfied and tired.

I have no idea - what're these orange things?

I just made sure not to eat these.