Banks Lake Birds & Lake Chelan
Merlin Bird ID
I woke up in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area – Banks Lake Wildlife Area Unit in Washington state. Throughout the night I could hear frogs along the shoreline beside the van and geese flying low up the lake. In the morning, I opened the side door while making breakfast and looked out over the water. For a while, it felt like I had the entire place to myself. The silence finally broke around eight when two fishermen launched their boat and headed upstream. Over the next couple of hours, more trucks and trailers rolled in as the lake slowly came to life.
I turned on Merlin Bird ID and let it run for about 20 minutes just to see what was around me. It identified 25 species. Red-winged Blackbirds dominated the soundtrack, including one perched on a rock just outside the van door calling constantly into the morning air. It was that kind of morning where there didn’t seem to be any reason to rush. I drank coffee, wrote for a while, and just listened to everything happening around me.
Around 11 am, two men pulled their boat out of the water with their two young boys, probably six or seven years old. About 10 minutes later, I started hearing repeated cracks from air rifles somewhere behind me. I looked out and realized the boys and one of the fathers were shooting at birds along the shoreline.
Anger hit me immediately. The lesson being taught there didn’t feel like one of responsibility or respect. It felt like the exact opposite. These birds had filled the entire morning with movement and sound, and now they were being treated like disposable targets. Maybe it was just target practice to them, but a soda can would have served the same purpose. Instead, it felt like they were teaching those kids that life only has value when you decide it does.
That completely changed the mood for me. I packed up the van and headed out toward my first destination of the day, more than an hour away, the town of Chelan, WA on Lake Chelan.
Lake Chelan felt completely different from where I had spent the morning. The drive eventually dropped down toward the water and into a lakeside town built around tourism and recreation. Vineyards stretched along parts of the hillsides surrounding the lake, while the downtown was packed with tourist shops, restaurants, hotels, vacation rentals, and every kind of summer activity imaginable. Boats crisscrossed the water, people wandered the sidewalks eating ice cream, and the entire place had the feeling of a vacation town fully awake after winter.
This was supposed to be a rest day, so I slowed things down. I had an early dinner at Marcela’s Cocina downtown, then spent some time driving around the area. Lake Chelan was nice, but the town itself felt smaller than I expected and not really what I was looking for. Tomorrow’s plan had been a short drive to Leavenworth, but I changed things up and pushed on to Wenatchee instead because there was a bike trail there I wanted to ride the tomorrow.
Before settling in for the night, I stopped at Walmart to stock up on supplies. Large signs all over the parking lot made it very clear: “No Overnight Camping / Parking.” The lot was also far too loud anyway. It was Sunday evening and the place was packed with traffic, people, and constant movement.
I initially parked on a side street beside an investment company that was closed for the weekend and stayed there until about 10. After that, I drove around looking for something quieter. The side streets throughout the area had unusually wide parking lanes running along the road. There were several apple processing facilities nearby, and I assumed these streets were probably packed with trucks during harvest season hauling apples in from the surrounding orchards.
Eventually I found a street with three semi trucks parked silently in a row. None of them were idling. No music. No people moving around. Just stillness.
That seemed like a very good sign for a quiet night.