Washington Trip Report - part 14 -Yakima
Feb. 23rd, 2020 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kknightI had a nice comfy and quiet room at the Motel 6 in Yakima. I didn't realize it when I checked, but when I looked at where I was in the morning, I had the room on the second floor that that was over top of the office and not connected to anything on either side, so no noisy neighbors. The hotel was in the middle of a commercial district with nothing but other big buildings in sight so no hotel view photo this time. There was a California Scrub-Jay in a tree near my room though, and it was cooperative about having its picture taken.
There are several species of scrub-jay. The California Scrub-Jay is the one that is found in the coastal areas of the west coast. It used to be mostly in California but it moved north to Oregon and Washington. Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay is the inland western species. When I heard the jay at the hotel, I was hoping it was a Woodhouse's because I haven't seen one of those in several decades, if I've seen them at all. (I've been too lazy to check my records on where I saw scrub-jays when I was young and they were all considered to be a single species.) But no, the inland scrub-jays in Washington are the California species. The coastal species moved inland there rather than the inland species from the south moving north.
I wanted to stretch my legs for a while before spending the day driving so I went over to the nearby Yakima Greenway and spent about an hour wandering around there.
The main trail is paved and I suspect it is on an old railway bed. The stretch I walked on goes along the Naches River and there were some ponds/small lakes on the other side of the trail. I saw a variety of common western birds there.
two immature White-crowned Sparrows in a bush next to one of the ponds
a Song Sparrow - the Song Sparrows in eastern and central Washington look subtlety different from the ones at home, but not nearly as different as some of the ones on the west side of the Cascades.
This is what the main trail looked like - straight, fairly wide, and nicely paved
On my way back to my car I spotted this in the distance and recognized what is was. The B&O railroad museum in Baltimore has one of these as well.
This sign explains what it is (click on the photo to see a larger version.)
There are several species of scrub-jay. The California Scrub-Jay is the one that is found in the coastal areas of the west coast. It used to be mostly in California but it moved north to Oregon and Washington. Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay is the inland western species. When I heard the jay at the hotel, I was hoping it was a Woodhouse's because I haven't seen one of those in several decades, if I've seen them at all. (I've been too lazy to check my records on where I saw scrub-jays when I was young and they were all considered to be a single species.) But no, the inland scrub-jays in Washington are the California species. The coastal species moved inland there rather than the inland species from the south moving north.
I wanted to stretch my legs for a while before spending the day driving so I went over to the nearby Yakima Greenway and spent about an hour wandering around there.
The main trail is paved and I suspect it is on an old railway bed. The stretch I walked on goes along the Naches River and there were some ponds/small lakes on the other side of the trail. I saw a variety of common western birds there.
two immature White-crowned Sparrows in a bush next to one of the ponds
a Song Sparrow - the Song Sparrows in eastern and central Washington look subtlety different from the ones at home, but not nearly as different as some of the ones on the west side of the Cascades.
This is what the main trail looked like - straight, fairly wide, and nicely paved
On my way back to my car I spotted this in the distance and recognized what is was. The B&O railroad museum in Baltimore has one of these as well.
This sign explains what it is (click on the photo to see a larger version.)
