2023 Cowlitz County Bird List - February Update

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Last Updated: March 08, 2023

By Russ Koppendrayer

While we added some nice species to our composite year list in February, none of them fit in the rarity category.

The smelt runs up the Columbia River and its Cowlitz County tributaries is one of the great spectacles of nature. These tiny but highly nutritious fish attract hordes of predators as they come upstream, including many sea lions, hundreds of Bald Eagles and thousands of gulls. Typically during a large smelt run (this year was one) we find a few vagrant gull species as mixed with the huge flocks of the usual seven species. This year a single Bonaparte's Gull was the sole oddity found in spite of a fairly robust effort by knowledgeable birders. While not one of our regular seven winter species it's not quite a rarity as we expect to see a few during their spring migration in April. 
A middle of February sighting of Barn Swallow was also about two months early although winter records of the species are becoming more frequent. All other additions to the list were expected arrivals or resident species we happened to miss in January.

Download the pdf here.

41st Cowlitz Columbia CBC Result

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Last Updated: March 03, 2023

By Bob Reistroffer

On January 1, 2023 the 41st 3CBC was held as part of Audubon's 123rd Christmas Bird Count. Thirteen field observers and one feeder watcher joined and spent a partially 
sunny day finding 9,608 birds and 99 species. The temperature ranged from 40° to 46°. This was the cool day with a low fog in the morning and partly cloudy in the 
afternoon.
We had a couple of new birds to this count:

• 1 Brandt’s Cormorant,
• 1 American Pipit

Sightings during the count week:

• Common Loon,
• Snow Goose,
• Sharp-shinned Hawk,
• Peregrine Falcon,
• Great Horned Owl,
• Eurasian Wigeon,
• Northern Harrier,
• Short-billed (Mew Gull),
• Pileated Woodpecker,
• Brown-headed Cowbird.

Thank you all for a great job. Hope to see you all next year on Monday, Jan 1, 2024.

*** Change of note for 2024 ***
I would like to say welcome and thank you to Becky Kent who has volunteered to take over the compilation of the 3CBC

Spring 2023 Whistler is available

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Last Updated: March 02, 2023

The Spring 2023 Whistler is available now.

Read more of its content: 

• Renewal and Rebirth – Presidents message
• WHAS Board Looks to Change Chapter Name
• New Avian Interpretive Signs for Lake Sacajawea Park
• Sparse results for the 2023 Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey
• 2022 Breeding Bird Survey Summary
• Volunteers Needed at Earth Day booth
• Cowlitz Columbia Christmas Bird Count results
• Membership Form
• NW Birding Events

WHAS Board Looks to Change Chapter Name

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Last Updated: February 28, 2023

From the WHAS Board

At a special board meeting recently a majority of the board present voted unanimously to begin a process of investigation into a name change to the organization.   

By consensus a committee has been appointed to begin this process and the end result will most likely be a name change that won’t include the name Audubon but will honor our founding as a National Audubon chapter in 1975.

The board took this action after more than a year’s discussion of the issue and the special two hour meeting held on February 11, ending with the resolution to seriously look into a name change.

The discussion has been ongoing since at least 2021 when National Audubon began in earnest  to address JJ Audubon’s  flawed character and slave-holding past.  That discussion followed efforts to make Audubon more inviting  to a new and more inclusive generation of Americans, and evolved into a national debate on whether to retain the Audubon name.  

A decision on that discussion is expected to conclude soon.  Similarly, Seattle Audubon decided last year to drop Audubon from that chapter’s name and is expected to announce a new name sometime in June.  Several other chapters nationwide have also decided to change their names, and still others await the decision at the national level.

With all this in mind, and more, the WHAS board has decided to move forward but on our own terms.  We acted with a nod to the future and our ability to gain new members and also to be more impactful.  We noted that the organization was never primarily about Mr Audubon and his personal story but about birding and by changing the name we can move forward cleanly.  We also believe this can be done without striking off JJ Audubon’s achievements in ornithology, but by carefully re-examining him, and his history, with solid and nuanced scholarship.

We counsel care at the national and state level of Audubon, to move with a transition plan in place if the name is changed;  and for continuing cooperation with all current chapters, if not.  We want to emphasize the legacy of respect that the Audubon Society has built in the US and around the world, the citizen science and the conservation efforts to protect all bird species and their habitats.

Again, WHAS has benefited from our relationship with the wider world of Audubon and so the board is most concerned about this issue of transition here in Washington state, where the statewide Audubon WA is so effective.

The board continues to be open to comments from you chapter members, get in contact through our Contact page.  As of now, there is no timeline for action and any change will be the result of careful consideration and a continuing conversation with you.

2023 Cowlitz County Bird List - January Update

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Last Updated: February 08, 2023

By Russ Koppendrayer

After not adding any new species to our complete list in 2022 we started off the new year with a bang by adding Brandt's Cormorant before noon on the 1st. This fish eating bird has a strong proclivity for salt water and very rarely would come this far upstream on the Columbia River. Found first at the end of Sportsman's Club Road, it was spotted again that day across the river from the Rainier Marina. On the morning of January 2nd it was seen for the last time near the Lewis and Clark Bridge. 

Another rarity for the month was our fourth record of  Ross's Goose, found mid month floating in the Columbia at Woodland in a large raft of diving ducks.

As usual we got the month off to a fine start with the Christmas Bird Count giving us a nice number of species on January 1st. Here's to a great year of birding for all of you.

Download the pdf here.

2022 Cowlitz County Bird List - Final

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Last Updated: February 08, 2023

By Russ Koppendrayer

During the last two months of 2022 we added three species to our Cowlitz year list. All of them were waterfowl found in the Woodland to Kalama stretch of the Columbia River. Red-breasted Merganser and Pacific Loon we find most years with an occasional miss. The Clark's Grebe was the prize find of the period as we can go numerous years between sightings of this species.  

Overall 2022 was a great year for birders in Cowlitz County with the 208 species recorded being only one shy of our all time record of 209. We had no misses of our annually expected species. Also there were no new species added to the all time list with super rarity finds. Of the species that started the year with less than five records we managed to locate nine.

2023 got off to a rousing start when a bird was found from a species never before seen in Cowlitz County. But that remains to be detailed here a month from now. Time to get out there and enjoy another year of birding.

Download the pdf here.

Winter 2022 Whistler is available

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Last Updated: February 27, 2023

The Winter 2022 Whistler is available now.

Read more of its content: 

• A Surfeit of the Fit - Presidents message
• Christmas Bird Count info
• Membership Form
• NW Birding Events
• Children’s Discovery Museum reopened
• WDFW invites High school students to submit invasive species…
• Vaux Swift Migration Monitoring and so Much More
• Obituary for Ann Dorothea Klug Musche’

2022 Cowlitz County Bird List - October Update

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Last Updated: November 04, 2022

By Russ Koppendrayer

As frequently happens, the September and October period of fall migration brought a few new species to Cowlitz County for our year list. This year it was a total of six new species giving us 203 for 2022. Surf Scoter and Pectoral Sandpiper are annual or nearly so, while Semipalmated Sandpiper is a little less frequent but not a huge surprise. Both of these sandpipers are a bit unique in that they are very rare in western Washington in spring migration, but are expected to pass through in the fall. 

The biggest surprise of the period was the county's second record Long-billed Curlew found on a sandbar in the Columbia River in the Woodland Bottoms. Unfortunately it was only seen by a few before being displaced by the incoming tide and disappearing, not to be relocated.

The late September through early October migration of Turkey Vultures along the ridge line east of I-5 north of Woodland has been attracting more counters the last few years. This year the biggest day was October 8th when 1014 passed by. Counters also added Lewis's Woodpecker to the year list with single individuals seen on two different days. There's only been a handful of previous records of this woodpecker. Five years ago when vulture counting started our first record of Broad-winged Hawk was seen in Cowlitz County. This year three different birds were seen and that makes it four out of the last five years they have been seen migrating through. 

Download the pdf here.

Vaux Swifts Fall Migration in full swing

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Last Updated: February 08, 2023

Several years ago, Darrel Whipple and crew removed the grating covering the smokestack at Riverside Community church in Rainier OR.  The purpose was to attract Vaux swifts during their twice-yearly migration. 

The southward migration of the swifts from all over the Northwest usually starts in September, affording us more opportunities to view thousands of them entering the chimney. The success was greater that possibly imagined.  One Sunday night in early September last year saw 19,514 birds enter the chimney before dark.  Similar counts happen each night during the 2-3 weeks of migration.  You can watch them and meet our volunteers from the corner of W D St and W 3^rd St near Fox Creek in Rainier, Ore.

Larry Schwitters of Vaux’s Happening recently sent out the rankings for the top 14 roost sites on the flyway for the northbound migration Rainier's Riverside Community Church ranked second or third in all three categories! Enjoy the video from the previous chimney and come and see the spectacle at the new location in person. 

The birds can be unpredictable but, in general, if the weather is relatively calm, they begin entering the roost around an hour before sunset and conclude half an hour after sunset.

The count on Monday, September 12th, was 24035, they started entering the chimney at 7:30pm and finished by 8pm.

2022 Cowlitz County Bird List - August Update

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Last Updated: September 12, 2022

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.