By Russ Koppendrayer
In the last two months of 2024 we added three species to our Cowlitz County year list. The most exciting was a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak that visited a Longview backyard feeder for a few days that a couple avid birders were fortunate to be able to photograph. This was a first ever record for the county. Nearly as rare was a third record of Yellow-billed Loon found in the Columbia River at the Woodland Bottoms and seen by a number of birders. Considered annual in the county, a Red-throated Loon was seen at Willow Grove in the last week of the year as it made a brief stop out from a couple birders before continuing downstream. This was the last of our annually expected species in the nick of time.
A quick recap of the entire year showed that in addition to seeing all the expected species we experienced many less than annual species including eight that had less than five previous county records. Not included in those eight were two species that had never been documented in the county before. In addition to the already mentioned Rose-breasted Grosbeak, there was a Slaty-backed Gull found in the Woodland Bottoms during the spring smelt run.
We ended the year with 207 species, just two shy of our record of 209, but definitely above our yearly average.
Here's to another great year of birding the area in 2025.
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