QUINCY LAKE DRAGONFLIES, BIRDS AND GEOLOGY- *Sundays with Sunny and Friends!
FULL DAY TOUR

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Email experience@evergreenescapes.com or call 206-650-5795 for reservations

DETAILED ITINERARY BELOW

Tour Length: 11 Hours
Tour Code: ES05
Pick-Up: Issaquah P&R
Departing: 8:00 a.m.
Returns: 7:00 p.m.
Activities: Dragonfly and Bird Watching, Walking, & Educational Sightseeing
Difficulty: Easy
Carbon Footprint:
Min No of Passengers:

Inclusions:
Issaquah pick up and drop off; highly qualified and knowledgeable naturalist guide; travel in luxury vehicle; excellent casual lunch; selected fruit, energy bars, soda, juice, and tea; all entry and parking fees; and comprehensive commentary.

Description:
Enjoy this Sunday with tour guide Sunny Walter, professional wildlife photographer, nature photo tour leader, and co-author of “Washington Nature Weekends, 52 Adventures in Nature.” Our accompanying dragonfly expert is Dave Nunnallee, Dragonfly Society of the Americas member, and butterfly/dragonfly/birding tour leader.

What We Will See
Our first stop will be just east of the Columbia River at the Wanapum Vista Viewpoint to see the Wild Horse sculpture and an overview of the geology of the Columbia River.

Our second stop will be at the ponds just off the Exit 143, Silica Rd exit. We will stop at a marsh and look for Yellow-headed Blackbirds and dragonflies. We will then walk west on a gravel road to other ponds where a variety of dragonflies can be found.

We will then briefly travel west down Frenchman Coulee, stopping near the basalt rimrocks to search for White-throated Swifts. Further down Frenchman Coulee we will see spectacular geological formations, including the “feathers,” a basalt formation that is very popular with climbers and very photogenic. We will also see a waterfall across the coulee and spring wildflowers of the shrub-steppe.

Lake Missoula and the Ice Age Floods: Geology of the Quincy Basin
During the Ice Age about one million years ago, a great accumulation of snow covered part of the continent, forming extensive ice fields up to 4,000 feet. A glacier moved south out of Canada, damming rivers and creating lakes in Washington, Idaho and Montana.

At the end of the last Ice Age (between 18,000 and 13,000 years ago) an ice sheet blocked the Clark Fork River drainage and causing Glacial Lake Missoula to form. At its largest, the lake was deeper than 2,000 feet deep at the dam and held over 500 cubic miles of water - as much as Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. When the dam broke, however, a towering mass of water and ice was released and swept across parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon on its way to the ocean. With flood speeds approaching 65 miles per hour, the lake would have drained in as little as 2 days.

The lake, ice dam and flooding sequence was repeated dozens of times over 25 centuries, leaving a lasting mark on the landscape. The towering mass of water and ice stripped away hundreds of feet of soil and cut deep canyons, or coulees, into the underlying bedrock. These coulees are now known as the channeled scablands. The floods built gravel bars as tall as 400 feet and moved boulders weighing many tons.

When Missoula Flood waters spilled across Washington, they flooded the Quincy Basin. The spillways into the Columbia near Quincy carved two large cataract channels and several smaller ones. The two largest are the Potholes Cataracts southwest of Quincy and Frenchman Coulee just north of I-90. We can drive all the way down Frenchman Coulee to see examples of the tremendous forces and what they left behind.

Potholes Coulee is less accessible. At Evergreen Reservoir, a short hike to the west shows views of the south alcove of Potholes Coulee, which is made up of Frenchman Springs basalt. We can also take a short hike down to Dusty Lake, nestled among high basalt cliffs.

At Wanapum Vista Viewpoint, we have views of Frenchman Gap, the south end of Babcock Ridge, the Columbia River and more.

We will our eat our excellent box lunches from “On Safari Foods” picnic-style at the Quincy Wildlife Area (we will bring ground cover for guest seating). We will then split our time in the afternoon between several excellent dragonfly areas: a small stream and riparian corridor near one of the lakes; several ponds with a good variety of dragonflies including skimmers, darners, emeralds and damselflies; and a hike along the trail to Dusty Lake. Dragonflies and damselflies are easy to observe in these freshwater ponds and gentle streams since they are active during the day. The males are generally the most colorful; the females more drab. Be sure to bring your cameras for close-up photographs.

Dragonflies are fantastic flyers and the only insects able to fly backwards; some have complex courtship behavior and aggressive territorial displays. Males spend much of their time searching for females, while females come to water only to breed and lay eggs. There they are immediately grabbed by males and mate while flying in tandem. The female deposits hundreds of eggs directly onto aquatic plants or drops them into the water.

The nymphs, or larvae, are predators, feeding on insects, crustaceans, small fish and tadpoles in the water. They breathe through gills and extract oxygen from the water. After a period varying from a few months to several years, the larva climbs from the water onto the stem of a water plant and emerges into a dragonfly (or damselfly). Adults can live up to 2 months.

Our guide will bring enough nets so everyone can catch some dragonflies and damselflies. He will teach us the secrets of successfully capturing these beautiful insects. Dragonflies are fast flyers and harder to catch than butterflies, but unlike butterflies, they can be handled gently without damaging them before we release them.

If we are lucky we might see a rattlesnake in the shrub-steppe habitat or possibly beavers and muskrats at work in the ponds. There should be a good selection of water birds, songbirds and raptors in the area. We will provide a good spotting scope to study distant sightings.

We will see balsamroot and other shrub-steppe wildflowers as we hike into Potholes Coulee, as well as more dragonflies in the wetlands. The Dusty Lake overlook has a great view of the lake surrounded by magnificent basalt cliffs.

We will also stroll the shoreline of Quincy Lake and the nearby pond to view spring and summer birds – Ruddy Ducks with bright blue bills, Yellow-headed and Red-winged blackbirds, orioles, kingbirds, Common Yellowthroats, White-crowned Sparrows, Killdeer, geese, herons, Mourning Doves, and perhaps Black-necked Stilts, American white pelicans and more. We also expect to see terns and cormorants on Stan Coffin Lake. Watch for hawks in the sky.

Our last stop will be just south of I-90 at Caliche Lakes, also part of the Quincy Wildlife Area and protected from human encroachment. We will take a short walk along the perimeter of the lake to see more dragonflies and birds.

Dragonflies become less active as the afternoon wanes, so we depart for home in plenty of time to arrive in Issaquah well before sunset.

Damselflies are smaller than dragonflies and have smaller, widely separated eyes. Most of them keep their wings closed over the abdomen. They are easier to approach than dragonflies. Species that we expect to see in the ponds are:
• Spreadwings - several fairly large species which have brown or metallic bodies and which rest with their wings opened at an angle;
• Pond Damsels, including the forktails, dancers and bluets, most with bright blue bodies (males) and transparent wings. The Vivid Dancer has a 1 1/2” blue body, and the Northern Bluet (also blue) is smaller; both species should be seen. We may also see the bright red Western Red Damsel.

Dragonflies are about twice as big, with roughly 3” bodies and wingspans. They hold their wings open flat, providing good opportunities for photographs. They have big eyes, set close together. You will notice that many dragonfly names actually describe them very well – a real treat. We expect to see the following dragonflies in ponds and marshy lakes at our various locations:
• Blue-eyed Darner, with its huge blue eyes, and 3 other darner species. Males are bright blue, cruise along the shoreline, and are easily handled - if not so easily caught;
• American Emerald (dark metallic, with emerald green eyes);
• Skimmers (traditional pond species), which include the Western Pondhawk (primrose blue), the Dot-tailed whiteface (dark gray), and the Hudsonian Whiteface (red and black);
• King Skimmers, including the Four-spotted Skimmer, Eight-spotted Skimmer (two spots on each of 4 wings), Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Black Saddlebags, and Blue Dasher; • Smaller Skimmers, including the Variegated Meadowhawk (which migrates in), White-faced Meadowhawk, and Western Meadowhawk. In most meadowhawks the males have red bodies; the females are yellowish. We will also see the Black Meadowhawk, which is not red.

This tour can be customized as a private tour, call or email for a quote.