April 2025
By Liz Melville Photos by Alan McCoy
Last December, my son Oliver and I went on a walk along the Columbia Plateau Trail, one of the Great American Rail-Trails that runs through Lamont, Washington. We accessed the trail by parking our car near the Lamont Grain Growers office and walking behind the grain elevator that lay just North of the Lamont Road.
On our walk, we saw or heard the following birds: Common Raven, Cackling Goose, House Sparrow, American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-billed Magpie, and a Ring-necked Pheasant.
“Would you quiz me using the bird calls on my Merlin app. on the way home?” I asked Oliver. “I would like to see how many of these birds I can recognize by their call or song.”
He was happy to oblige, but the challenge was harder than I thought it would be, especially since Oliver mixed in other birds that he thought I should know but didn’t. It was still fun, and I was learning.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to recognize the birds that are hidden all around them.
