Third Time's the Charm

 Or rather, third year is the charm -- more on that cryptic subject line later!

First, a dog walk through the Chamna Natural Preserve, where we haven't been in some time, mostly because there's too much cheatgrass there in summer.  It's nasty stuff that can injure dogs, so we wait until it has died back.  Also, Truman doesn't like this place because we can't use the stroller, and he has to walk the whole way, which he mostly balks at:

I just leave him behind, and trot off with Pippin, and eventually Truman decides he wants to tag along with us, with some encouragement from his buddy:

There are over eleven miles of trails through this area.  We hiked a good three of them.

More reluctance on Truman's part:

We saw some lovely autumn foliage:

Here is Truman again, refusing to budge:

There are lovely views of the Yakima River:

Eventually we turned around and headed back towards the start, at which point Truman rocketed ahead on the trail, because we were finally going in the right direction -- towards the car, and home:

Another fun outing involved driving to the back of beyond to a horse barn/pasture where my friend Betsy from Seattle was having an equestrian riding lesson.  She brought along her horse Bentley, and I got to meet him for the first time.

Betsy and Bentley:

Betsy has been riding horses for decades and has done equestrian events and cross-country stuff for many many years but she had been out of practice for about two years after a fall that broke her nose.

This was her first time jumping again after that incident, and she did splendidly, and had a great time at the weekend-long riding clinic.

And Bentley made a friend:

As for art projects, our Zoom group did this colorful staircase:

We decided at one session to go outside our comfort zone and draw a person.  We chose this stylish woman at random.  My drawing got a bit messy, as I started with an overworked pencil sketch, then went to ink, and finally tried adding some color with colored pencils.  This was done in about an hour and fifteen minutes:

I suspect that all those portraits I've done over the past year and a half of Crowley and Aziraphale helped in getting this to look halfway decent!

Okay, now we come to the subject line for this post.  In the winter of 2018-19, a Slaty-backed Gull visited the Tri-Cities.  This bird is quite a rare visitor from Siberia/NE Asia, and I tried to see it, and failed after several attempts.  

In the winter of 2019-20, the bird returned to the same spot it favored -- a marina by Bateman Island.  I staked out the area on five or six occasions, and failed again.

Other birders would report seeing the bird either before I got there, or shortly after I left.  Sigh.

Well, a week or so ago, the bird returned again!  People reported seeing it in the early afternoons, so I tootled off as soon as I could, and sat there one afternoon chatting amiably with a pair of birders.  All we saw were some cormorants, pelicans, and grebes out on the river, and this Cooper's Hawk eating a pigeon:

A few birders reported seeing the gull in the late mornings, so the next day I decided to head out around 10:30am.  I was determined to keep going, day after day, no matter how many tries it took, to see this rarity.  

The Slaty-backed Gull is larger than most other gulls that frequent our area, and it has a much darker back, and white wing tips.

This is the marina, where gulls hang out on the roof:

And this is what I saw when I walked over to it:

A large gull with a very dark back and white wing tips!

A nearby Ring-billed Gull kindly stood up and stretched, giving me a nice size comparison.

The other gulls around it, like the Ring-billed, all had yellow legs.  Another key field mark for the Slaty-backed Gull is pink legs, and after watching it for twenty minutes, the bird kindly stood up:

Pink legs!  Whoo hoo!  

I sent the pics to the local bird group, who confirmed the ID.  Now I can finally add this pesky bird to my Life List.  Whee!

I'm so glad that I don't have to keep going over there day after day after day.  

That's all for now.  Have a great week, everyone, and may you see some wonderful birds along the way.