The Eagle Outdoors

I'm sitting on the back porch this morning with my black dog, Abigail at my feet. Both of us listen to the boats leave the Elochoman Marina for another day of trolling back and forth. Dropping something magical, colorful, and wrapped in or containing a small piece of Bumblebee product damn near to the bottom. Easing back in the captain's chair with the cap to the old school Stanley thermos filled to the brim and a hunk of fresh-made pumpkin bread at the ready.

It's a nice morning, albeit a bit cool. With off and on light showers with broken clouds and the sun being a here and gone tease, I'm hearing the big girl chickens waking up on the roost. The stray cat I've been feeding for a couple of years now wanders around the corner of the garage on her way to the woodpile to sleep the day away. She should be mousing, pulling her weight and paying her dues. Perhaps tonight she'll tend to her rent. The Anna's hummingbirds, always on the lookout for the smaller yet feistier Rufous, hover around the feeder. I had the opportunity to watch one female Anna's drink from drops of water suspended on the monofilament fishing line spooled on a rod leaning against the rail. I always find Mother Nature fascinating.

Eurasian collared doves - an immigrant from the Bahamas in the mid-70s that were blown north, it's said, by a storm and are now colonizing the country from Florida to Washington and British Columbia - call from atop the phone pole across the Valley Road. Big geese, I'm sure nesting on the late Dale Strueby's farm pond up the way, are raising a ruckus. Seeing red-wing blackbirds, starlings, English sparrows, a male goldfinch, a partial painter's palette of yellow against all this green, it's a good day to sit, listen, and scratch the dog behind the ears.

Cathlamet springer update

From everything I'm being told, there are some spring chinook being caught by those shipping out of the Elochoman Marina. Rich Casapulla stopped by the house here on Wednesday, May 14, with tales of his 28-pounder from that morning. Rich had pictures, too, along with a nice hunk of fish, which Julie baked straight away that evening. The fish count, should you be interested - meaning chinook over Bonneville Dam - has been steadily, albeit slowly increasing all week. Some 2,522 kings being counted on Saturday, May 17, makes for a total of 99,856 beyond the concrete. This extension of the spring season will continue through May 22, 2025.

Free fishing weekend, June 7-8

It's a couple of weeks away, but there's no time like the present, if you'll pardon the cliché, to prepare yourself and those young ones for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) annual Free Fishing Weekend. This year, Free Fishing Weekend will be held statewide on Saturday and Sunday, June 7-8. During this event, the fishing license requirement for all anglers is suspended. That's right; no fishing license will be required. However, the exemption does NOT apply to all species or activities. Per the WDFW website, "a valid fishing license is required for anyone 15 [years] or older to harvest shellfish and any fish species requiring a catch record card (including salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and halibut) during free fishing weekend. All other rules and regulations apply during Free Fishing Weekend." For complete details and additional information, visit the WDFW's website at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/free and then take someone fishing.

Local blacktail deer in motion

Last Friday evening, I was heading to The Cathlamet Market for the essentials, meaning milk and ice cream, when I was forced to stop and wait...and wait...and wait in front of the Bank of the Pacific for three blacktail does, a yearling, and a little nubbin buck to mosey their way out of the driveway next to the hardware store, across Main Street, and casually down Butler. I certainly didn't mind the wait, as I had a fine front row seat to the ungulate parade, but I did want to use the experience as a 'heads up,' as it seems the blacktails (and whitetails) are on the move around town and points outside the city limits, and I urge caution when driving. The Elochoman is deer-busy now; so, too, is the intersection of State Route 4 and Elochoman Valley road, where it seems two blacktails and a whitetail doe are crossing almost daily. Be careful, stay alert, and slow a little bit.

Chimney swifts

Y'all notice the hundreds of chimney swifts buzzing around like an avian swarm of honeybees above the Cathlamet Hotel lately? If you get a chance, stop and take a look one evening. It's pretty amazing how many of the little birds there are milling about around dusk. I would imagine they're roosting in one or more of the chimneys up there. I'll have to investigate a bit more.

And for the kindness of neighbors...

A special "thank you" goes out to two wonderful folks for allowing Julie and me to take our grandsons – Tristan, 14, and Wyatt, 12 – to their pretty little pond, where the boys each caught a pair of gorgeous Donaldson's rainbow trout and a salamander. By the way, if you've never watched a 14-year-old with a pink cast on his right arm fight a 6-lb. rainbow trout on a 4-1/2' ultralight rod and a micro-spincasting reel spooled with 4-lb. monofilament..and win...well, you haven't lived.