Spring 2022 Whistler is online
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The Spring 2022 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- Annual Announcements - Presidents message
- Message to our National Members
- Membership Form
- NW Birding Events
- 2022 is a WHAS Election Year
- Christmas Bird Count Results
- Keep your feeders clean
- The Loon Lunch
- Conserving Coastal Birds and Habitat
2022 Cowlitz County Bird List - January Update
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By Russ Koppendrayer
As usual we got our year list off to a nice start on New Year's Day with the Christmas Bird Count, but the addition of more folks interested in the birding hobby and use of eBird has been valuable for additions to the list as well.
The most unusual bird species of the month was a flock of Common Redpolls found at 7th Avenue Park in Longview on January 17th. This is the second record for Cowlitz County and unlike the 2018 birds that were here and gone, this group seems to be still present at this writing on February 2nd. While they have been seen by numerous birders their presence at the park has been intermittent. The best chance to find them seems to be right after sunrise when they appear in the alder trees between the soccer field and the drainage ditch. Sometimes their stay is only a few minutes and other times they have been seen there for over an hour. We've never figured out where they spend the time away from the park. These birds that nest in northern Canada and Alaska and rarely get this far south in Washington in winter may linger for another month or be gone tomorrow.
Download the pdf here.
2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - Final
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By Russ Koppendrayer
As usual the last two months of the year didn't add many species to our Cowlitz County year list. The three additions included a Ring-necked Pheasant in November. This species seems to be getting more difficult to find each year and my take is that they are no longer successfully breeding in the county and we are only finding them after WDFW does their fall release in the Woodland Bottoms for the hunters. Also found were Red-throated Loon and Pacific Loon which are both not quite annual in the county. Amazingly they were both seen in the Columbia River at the mouth of the Kalama River on the late date of December 29.
Our final species list of 204 is above average, but short of our all time best record of 209 species set in 2020. The only species completely new to the list was Great Gray Owl. We did not have any misses for species that are expected annually.
As of this writing we are already getting going on our 2022 list. Enjoy the birding in 2022.
Download the pdf here.
Winter 2021 Whistler is online
- Details
The Winter 2021 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- Free Tree Seedlings from the Carbon Capture Foundation
- Christmast Bird Counts - All the local info
- Membership Form
- NW Birding Events
- 2022 is a WHAS Election Year
- More than 350000 swifts roosted in Rainier!
- Cowlitz Bird Count October update
- The Grace of Trumpeter Swans
2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - October Update
- Details
By Russ Koppendrayer
We've managed to add five species since the last update at the end of August. A Semipalmated Plover was actually seen in mid August, but not on the eBird accepted list until September. The rarest find was the county's fourth record of Broad-winged Hawk seen by a hawk watcher in the Woodland Bottoms where all previous records also occurred during fall migration. All these records have occurred in three of the last four years, which would seem to imply that they may have been passing through in small numbers for years since this hawk watch has only been happening for four years. The ridge just east of I-5 just north of Woodland may just be one of the primary migration corridors in western Washington for hawks and especially Turkey Vultures.
Also of interest was the number of reports of Surf Scoter in October. While we expect to see small numbers in the Columbia River as they migrate through in October through early November we had a group of six at Willow Grove and a number of reports from the Woodland Bottoms area. Three were even in the ponds of the former Longview sewage treatment facility, which is not an annual place for them. Furthermore all these birds were either females or juvenile males with no adult males present. Who knows what is driving this phenomenon.
Download the pdf here.
Common Winter Birds of Western Washington Class
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Winter birds of western Washington are amazing. Explore 100 species commonly found in fall and winter. Learn about their shape, size, color patterns, behaviors, habitat, and sounds. The 5-week course taught by Ornithologist Dr. Thomas Bancroft consists of five 90-minute classes held on Zoom.
Class dates:
- Thursdays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM,
- October 21st, 28th
- November 4th, 11th, and 18th.
Class recordings are also available.
Fee: $115
More info and registration at Rainier Audubon Society!
Fall 2021 Whistler is online
- Details
The Fall 2021 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- The Wonder of Grief
- Christmast Bird Counts - Save the dates
- Membership Form
- NW Birding Events
- Report on Audubon State meeting
- Bird Flight Patterns and Music
- Vaux Swifts in Rainier Oregon
- Birds of a Feather Winter Roost Together
See the Vaux's Swifts in Rainier Oregon
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Vaux's Swifts are starting to roost in the Riverside Community Church chimney in Rainier. We already had a few readings getting up to 20,000.
Folks wishing to check out this phenomenon for themselves will have the best chance from half an hour before sunset until half an hour after sunset. The southward migration of the swifts from all over the Northwest starts in September, affording us more opportunities to view thousands of them entering the chimney. You can watch them from the lower parking lot accessible from W C St next to Fox Creek.
Check it out and say hi to Carolyn, Juni and Terri.
2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - August Update
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By Russ Koppendrayer
As usual the July and August period was slow for new additions to our list of species seen in Cowlitz County for the year. This year all three additions were from the shorebird group. Specifically they were Pectoral Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher.
The dowitcher we find every year at some time as they move through in both spring and fall migrations in small numbers and even will overwinter sometimes. The two sandpiper species are almost exclusively fall migrants through Washington state however, and then in fairly small numbers. Spring migration records of these species are quite rare as they move through the middle of North America at that time. While we do find Semipalmated and Pectoral Sandpipers in Cowlitz County most years we do sometimes miss them completely due to a lack of much shorebird habitat in fall as many places go completely dry.
Download the pdf here.
2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - June Update
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By Russ Koppendrayer
Through the first twenty-nine days of June we had only added Common Nighthawk and Red-eyed Vireo to our year list, both of which are traditional late arriving migrant nesting species in Cowlitz County.
Then on the last day of June our second ever record of Least Flycatcher was found along Hummocks Trail in the Mount Saint Helens National Monument. This species is one of the look alike members of the genus Empidonax or commonly shortened to empids by birders. A recording of the unique che-bek calls of this individual was obtained for documentation. Least Flycatcher is common in woodlands east of the Rockies in the northern tier of states and well up into southern Canada, and a few make it into northeastern Washington to nest every year. While having one in southwest Washington is not unheard of, this is the only individual found west of the Cascades in 2021 to the best of my knowledge.
Download the pdf here.
- Summer 2021 Whistler is online
- 2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - May Update
- Cowlitz PUD Osprey Cam 2021
- 2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - April Update
- Vaux's Swifts are back in Rainier, Oregon
- 2021 Cowlitz County Bird List - March Update
- Birding Classes at LCC (open to all)
- Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey
- 37th Cowlitz-Columbia Christmas Bird Count Results
- 2020 Leadbetter Bird Count Results