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By Russ Koppendrayer
With the end of June the year is half over and we have seen wintering birds, spring migration and breeding birds. That is reflected in our fine total of 197 species. From here on we will see additions to our Cowlitz County year list slow dramatically and I will give an update every other month instead of monthly.
We did add five species in June. Red-eyed Vireo and Yellow-breasted Chat are late arriving annual breeding species here and were found early in the month. Golden Eagle and Western Screech-Owl are coded as less than annual. The vast majority of Golden Eagle sightings are of soaring birds and are rarely repeatable, but are found most years. Western Screech-Owl is likely a year around resident in Cowlitz County that has been historically under reported. With more people out there birding, especially at night this species will likely become coded as an annual species in the near future.
A Lark Sparrow found along Tradewinds Road near Kalama provided only the third record of this species for Cowlitz County. A species that utilizes a variety of habitats to nest in most of the United States west of the Mississippi River, it is oddly absent in western Oregon and Washington. A lost migrant or more rarely a winter bird shows up in random places west of the cascades.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
Spring migration continued with lots of birds passing through Cowlitz County during May and ever more birders seeming to enjoy seeing them. Besides the species that we expect annually a few of the rarer variety were seen. The county's second ever record of American Redstart was reported from the Hummocks Trail. The third record of Brandt's Cormorant was at the mouth of the Kalama River. It seems something is going on with this cormorant species as all three records have occurred in the last year and a half. Also unusual was a small group of Common Terns flying downstream along the Columbia River near Kalama for their fourth record in Cowlitz County.
For a number of us the most exciting find of the month was a Rock Wren singing on territory at an old rock quarry near Davis Peak. While there have been a number of sightings in the blow down area near Mount Saint Helens, most of those are older records. Not only has it been seven years since one was last reported, but this is the first to linger for an extended period, to the best of our knowledge. Although unconfirmed, a couple of observers thought they heard a more distant second individual. Could there be a possible breeding attempt?
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By Russ Koppendrayer
The end of April finds us in the heart of spring migration with new species arriving every day. With a Willapa Hills Audubon field trip and two Washington Ornithological Society field trips in Cowlitz County during the last week of the month as well as the ever increasing number of individuals out birding we seemed to be finding new species as soon as the first few individuals arrived. Very nice to see a more complete documentation of our county's avifauna, especially on eBird.
The only real rarity of the month was a Brandt's Cormorant seen at the mouth of Mill Creek one afternoon. This second ever record for Cowlitz County was not to be seen again in spite of some diligent searching. Brandt's Cormorants have always been strongly associated with salt water and are unusual in the Columbia River even in the Astoria area. In early April one was spotted near Skamokawa for the very first Wahkiakum County record. Amazingly, many more were seen in the area including groups numbering into the teens and farther upstream to Cathlamet. Both breeding plumage adults and year old birds are being seen. No reason for this phenomenon has been discovered, but as of this writing they are still being seen and additional Cowlitz sightings would not be unreasonable.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
We continued to have new species of migrants being found in Cowlitz County throughout the month of March. They were almost all expected at this time of year although a few were actually a little early.
The lone exception was a Slaty-backed Gull. This was the first ever record for this species in the county. Found on a sandbar in the Columbia River in the Woodland Bottoms, it was excellently documented both verbally and with photos. Primarily a species found in Asia there seem to be annual records in the state of Washington and it was finally our turn to host one in Cowlitz County. To the chagrin of many it was last photographed in flight as it departed and was only seen by the folks that found it.
Migration will continue to send more species our way as the wave of birds flowing into the area continues through April and May so get out and enjoy.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
The month of February did a very nice job of filling in our list of wintering species as well as year round resident birds. In the last week we also welcomed back the first early neotropical migrants of 2024. Both Violet-green and Tree Swallows as well as Rufous Hummingbirds made an appearance. Another interesting find was a hybrid duck with a Tufted Duck being one parent and a scaup being the other.
The star of the month was a Clark's Nutcracker found on the road leading to Signal Peak. This was only the fourth record for Cowlitz County, all occurring since 2007. It seems highly likely that this species was more prevalent in this county before the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980. The Clark"s Nutcracker population was larger then and there was better habitat here. Record keeping of bird species at the county level became much more prevalent from the late 1980s up to the present in the state of Washington.
Download the pdf here.