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By Russ Koppendrayer
Two species have been added to the list since the last report two months ago. This gives us the most species found in Cowlitz County in one year over the life of this project. The first addition was a Heermann's Gull that was actually seen in mid October, but didn't get through the eBird review in time for the October report. This was the third ever record for the county for this gull that has a strong attachment to salt water. While we have three records, Wahkiakum county just downstream on the Columbia River has only one record and the next county upstream (Clark) has never witnessed this visitor. Heermann's Gull is a handsome mostly gray gull whose favorite foraging technique is to follow Brown Pelicans when they plunge dive on baitfish and take advantage of any fish stirred up or spilled by the pelicans.
The second addition was a White-tailed Kite that appeared for a couple days at Willow Grove. This species has become quite rare anywhere in Washington in the last twelve years. After being well established in the southwest part of the state, their range has regressed southward with the nearest population now in the Tillamook, Oregon area.
As previously stated there is now a new county highest total for species in a year. These 209 species include the three that were new to the county. We added Gray Flycatcher, Siberian Accentor, and American Redstart to our list in 2020.
We'll see what 2021 has to offer for birding excitement and pleasure, and good birding to all.
Download the pdf here.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
A couple quite rare species for the county were found in the last couple months along with a number of species that are seen more often, but not annually. Add in a couple finds of species seen annually, and we had a banner late fall season. Our total species to date for 2020 ties our best ever annual total, so any additions in the final two months will be our best ever since the beginning of this project.
The second county record of Marbled Godwit was found in a wetland at Kalama during September. Like the previous record it was a one day wonder and gone by the next day. Also a second record for Cowlitz County was a Broad-winged Hawk found by a hawk watcher that was primarily counting Turkey Vultures migrating along a ridge line just east of I-5 near Woodland. This bird soared along the same wind currents as the vultures. The only previous record was two years ago during fall migration at the same place and found by the same observer. A Brown Pelican was seen resting briefly on a Columbia River sandbar for another rare find. There have been a number of prior records, but this species is far from annual this far from salt water in Washington.
Download the pdf here.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
As usual we only added a few species during July and August, having already welcomed all of our migrant nesters previously. But of the four additions this year there were some nice finds. The rarest for the county was the Common Tern. This second ever record for Cowlitz County was found resting on a small sandbar in the Columbia River one afternoon and seen by five birders before the tide flooded its roosting spot and the bird was not seen again. While enjoying this bird one of the onlookers noted that in Cowlitz County the Caspian Tern is the common tern and the Common Tern is the rarer tern.
A couple of Red-necked Phalaropes were found on the former Longview Sewage Ponds providing the fourth record for the county. Found late in the afternoon of August 31st, they squeaked onto this list in the nick of time. Western Sandpipers were seen on numerous days in multiple locations to be added to the year list. Notable mostly because in 2019 we inexplicably missed this normally annual species completely. Nice to have them on the list again.
Download the pdf here.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
For the month of June we only added a half dozen species to our Cowlitz County year list, however two of them were quite unusual. A female Acorn Woodpecker put in a morning appearance on 6/11 at a feeder on Pleasant Hill Road and was photographed, only to never be seen again. This supplied the fifth record for the county and an exciting lifer for the home owners.
The very next morning on 6/12 an adult male American Redstart was found singing on some Port of Kalama property that is accessible to the public. This first ever record for Cowlitz County was joined by a female a few days later and both birds persist at that location until this writing at the end of June and have been seen by numerous birders. No evidence of nesting at this point, except for the presence of the pair. I consider this an "about time" find as we are the thirty-fifth out of the thirty-nine Washington counties to record this species. However the vast majority of counties have only records of migrating birds, especially in the fall, so having a pair on territory is a special treat. We'll try to keep a watch on this pair to see if there are further developments.
Be healthy and safe out there.
Download the pdf here.
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By Russ Koppendrayer
This has been the spring to find flycatchers migrating through Cowlitz County that will do their nesting on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. We started with our unprecedented numbers of Western Kingbird sightings. While this species appears annually in Cowlitz County during spring migration, this year there were numerous records including one of ten individuals in one small area of the Woodland Bottoms. The previous record size for one group was six last year, and there were many fewer occurrences that year.
Next a Dusky Flycatcher made an appearance in the Woodland Bottoms producing the third county record for this species. Dusky Flycatcher always makes spring migration appearances in a few western Washington locations, but our bird seemed to be one of an abnormally high number of sightings.
Lastly a Gray Flycatcher was found along Barlow Point Road giving Cowlitz its first ever record for this species. Much more rarely seen in western Washington, our bird was also part of a bigger than usual count. Thurston and Pierce counties to our north also saw their first ever records of Gray Flycatcher. This species has been making a big population increase as a breeding species in eastern Washington in the last couple decades which may account for a few more using this side of the Cascades for a migration route, or the bonus sightings may have been an outlier. Time will tell.
Enjoy the breeding season and be safe and healthy.
Download the pdf here.