Common Tern_wikimedia
Common Tern - Image courtesy of Wikimedia

By Russ Koppendrayer

With a week to go in August I thought we'd have no additional species to report for the last two months.

Then in the last four days we added two species. Both Baird's Sandpiper and Common Tern were found at the mouth of the Kalama River on the gravel bars at low tide. Baird's Sandpiper is a species seen in Cowlitz County during fall migration, but only about one out of every three years. Common Tern is seen even less frequently as this is only the third ever record for the county, all in August or September.

With fall migration in high gear now we hope to make a few more additions in the next couple months..

Download the pdf here.