12/15 What’s Happening

Snow keeps falling on White Pass skiers

The White Pass ski area had 5 inches of new snow awaiting skiers Monday morning, with another 10 to 14 inches expected overnight, meaning there will be plenty of fresh powder on the slopes today.

There will also be plenty of snow still falling — up to 8 inches today and another 5 inches tonight, according to the National Weather Service, which has issued a winter storm warning for the west slopes of the Central Cascades and mountain passes.

White Pass had 34 inches in the base area and 50 inches at the summit as of late Monday morning, according to the ski area’s Web site (www.skiwhitepass.com). The Great White high-speed quad was running, as were the platter lift and the carpet in the base area.

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Fly-tying class set to run for 10 weeks

The West Valley Fly Fishers will host a basic fly-tying class that will run on 10 consecutive Thursday evenings beginning Jan. 21, going from 7 to 8:30 p.m. each evening.

The early announcement provides prospective class members (or their spouses) a possible Christmas-gift idea — the “textbook” the class will follow. The book, “Basic Fly Tying,” by Charlie Craven, will be available at a discounted price at Fairbanks Outfitters.

The course is free, but donations (to cover class costs) are welcome. For more information, e-mail Norm Shively at drshively@yua.com.

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BIRD ALERT

As winter sets in, raptors become easier to spot as they struggle to find enough food to stave off the cold.

A man took his 2-year-old grandson to Randall Park recently to feed the ducks. An adult bald eagle was perched in a tree near the duck pond. After the ducks ate all of the boy’s bread, the man watched the eagle lift off from the tree, swoop down and grab a duck off the water. It landed on the edge of the pond and proceeded to pluck and eat the duck.

A Sawyer birder had a five-hawk day, seeing a northern harrier, two red-tailed hawks, two American kestrel, a sharp-shinned hawk and a quick visit by a Cooper’s hawk. A merlin was perched in a maple tree near the intersection of Maple and Hillcrest in Terrace Heights and a Cooper’s hawk was patrolling the feeders of a Sunnyside resident.

Several callers have reported seeing Anna’s hummingbirds still coming to feeders. If you still have hummers after this cold spell, you may want to bring your feeders in at night to keep them from freezing. A light hung in a tree might also give a hummingbird enough warmth to make it through a cold night.

Other birds of note included a leucistic (lacking normal color pigment) lesser scaup, one red-necked grebe along with two pied-billed grebes on the Buena Pond. Two cackling geese of the minima subspecies were noted among the many Canada geese at the Yakima Area Arboretum, and a Townsend’s solitaire was spotted atop a tree along South 19th Avenue.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

NOT ENOUGH SNOW FOR SNO-PARKS: The Pleasant Valley Loop, Hells Crossing and North Fork Tieton Sno-Parks remain closed until there is enough snow to warrant open them. (Some of that was supposed to come down on Monday, so that may be changing soon.) Much of the upcountry still doesn’t have enough snow to consider snowmobiling or even cross-country skiing.

LION GULCH LOGGING: A “fuels-reduction” logging operation in Lion Gulch near Liberty (east of Highway 97 on the way to Blewett Pass) will impact snowmobilers using Forest Road 9712. Logging truck traffic can be expected Monday through Friday on that road through February while 1,310 acres of woodland are commercially thinned. For more information, call the Cle Elum Ranger District at 509-852-1100.

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ON THE CALENDAR

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies will hike in Cowiche Canyon, weather permitting — or, if the weather is crummy, the route will be on the Yakima Greenway. For meeting time and place, call Jeanne Crawford at 966-8608.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians’ David Hagen will lead his “Winter Walk No. 2” — basically a hike ranging from easy-intermediate to easy-advanced, meaning the possibility of some steeper pitches, elevation gain of 2,000 feet or so and possibly some travel across scree and talus. Bring lunch and water, and come prepared for wicked weather. Call Hagen at 965-3697 to learn meeting time and place.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians’ Miles and Saundie McPhee will lead an easy/intermediate cross-country ski trek somewhere in the Chinook Pass area, depending on where the conditions are good. Call 509-658-2553 for meeting time and place.