WHAS - Bird Lists and Wildlife Sightings

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - April Update

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Last Updated: Wednesday, 02 May 2018 10:21

We arrive at the end of April during the heart of migration with new species arriving in the county daily. It's fun to be out there looking for them or just kicking back and seeing them arrive at our feeders.

The most exciting April sighting for a number of us was the second Cowlitz County record of Vesper Sparrow. This one day wonder was found foraging right at roadside along a fence line in the Woodland Bottoms and was seen by numerous birders for the rest of the day. Despite a number of people searching for hours, the bird could not be relocated the next morning as it had likely moved on.

Vesper Sparrow is a grassland species that is common in appropriate habitat east of the Cascades in Washington, with small nesting populations in a couple west side locations, notably Joint Base Lewis McChord and a beach area on San Juan Island. A few migrating birds are found annually in other western Washington spots and this one was a treat for some local birders.

Download the pdf here.

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - February Update

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Last Updated: Thursday, 01 March 2018 15:14

We added a few resident as well as wintering birds in February that we had missed in January. At the end of the month the first of our spring migrants began to appear, with Tree Swallows, Turkey Vulture and Rufous Hummingbird all making an appearance. Barn Swallows were already seen in January, which was part of a wide spread presence of this species in western Washington this winter.

What was unusual about this was the quantity of the reports as we expect some winter appearance of Barn Swallows. After the last migrants leave in late October there may be no Barn Swallows seen until early January, then there will be random sightings until late February. Then another gap in reports occurs until the first spring migrants appear about April first.

This odd seasonal pattern has led some to theorize that the winter birds are not our local breeders trying to over winter, but rather birds from southern South America that have migrated north for the austral winter, then when it comes time to return south for nesting they mistakenly continue north and end up here, where they slowly succumb to the weather conditions. To the best of my knowledge this theory has not been confirmed by DNA research as of yet. 

Download the pdf here.

Leadbetter Christmas Bird Count Results

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Last Updated: Thursday, 22 February 2018 07:05

By John and Margaret Green 

The Leadbetter CBC took place on what we might consider a balmy day in the middle of December (average temperature at 46 F) and certainly not typical of most past counts. There were intermittent showers but not the blustery winds, torrential downpours and brutal cold that have often visited years past.  Robert and Sam Sudar, once again served us well as count compilers, and many of our past participants continued their tradition as section leaders and support teams.

Robert noted several comparisons to past counts: The 111 species found is the best in several years. The 2016 total was 98 and 2015 was 95. Notable sightings included a rare visit from the north, White-winged Crossbill and rare for the season, Band-tailed Pigeons. Other notable water birds included Black, Surf and White-winged Scooters, Common, Pacific and Red-Throated Loons. We are continuing to see increasing numbers of Western Grebes, 35 this year, after becoming a bit of a rarity 10-15 or so years ago. Horned, Red-necked and Pied-billed Grebes were also seen. 2 Pileated Woodpecker showed up; we know they are around but we don't always see them.

Notable absences were Scaup, American Coot, American Bittern and Mourning Dove. Notable "returnee" which hadn't been seen for several years was the Great Egret. The counts implied a notable trend away from Mourning Doves (1) to Eurasian Collared Doves (43) and Western Scrub Jays, rare several years back, continue to be present.

Of the top 10 species, eight were waterfowl (including American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Mallard) and shorebirds (highest numbers of Dunlin). American Crows and European Starlings were the most numerous in the song bird category.

The other count numbers that resonate with us as count coordinators are the human numbers; we had 35 enthusiastic participants and 3 feeder counters, great section leaders and great fun. The Christmas Bird Count continues to provide excitement and enjoyment

2017 Wahkiakum CBC Results

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 February 2018 22:45

By Andrew Emlen

The 20th annual Wahkiakum Christmas Bird Count was held on December 29, 2017, with 21 participants. Rain fell throughout most of the day, heavily at times. There were also fewer birding parties than usual, particularly kayakers to cover the Columbia River islands, so numbers of species and individual birds were lower than average: 104 species, 27,758 birds.

The most abundant bird was Cackling Goose with 7644, followed by Greater Scaup with 2785, the lowest Greater Scaup total in the history of the count. A large falcon seen by Mike Patterson in Brownsmead was probably the Gyrfalcon identified by other birders in the same area the following week. Great Egrets continue to increase their numbers in the area; this year's total of 35 nearly doubled the previous high count.

Last year was the first year Turkey Vultures had been recorded wintering in the count circle, on Puget Island, and Turkey Vultures were present again during this year's count week. Misses included Horned Lark, as not enough boaters were available to send someone to their year-round colony on White's Island.

Other than that, there was a fair representation of the common species in the circle. Full results can be found on Audubon's website: http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/

Many thanks to all the volunteers who braved the wet weather.