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2014 Cowlitz County bird count recap:

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Acorn Woodpecker - Image Rob Kredenburg

Here is Russ Koppendrayer's take on 2014:

We finished the last couple months of the 2014 Cowlitz County Bird Count with some nice finds.

The county's first ever Acorn Woodpecker visited a Longview feeder for three days in late November.

Also the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website had a photo of Snow Bunting taken in December on their Mount Saint Helen's Wildlife Area. Not a source I've ever checked, but I was alerted to it by a friend in Spokane.

This was our eighth year of this project and the averages are beginning to be meaningful. The 197 species in the county this year is above our 191 average but short of the 2011 record of 203.   

 

First Ever Black-throated Sparrow seen in Woodland

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May was an exciting month for rare migrants in Cowlitz County. The headliner had to be the county's first ever record of Black-throated Sparrow. The bird was seen and photographed in a Woodland yard on the 20th and seen briefly the next morning before it disappeared.  Primarily a species of the arid southwest U.S., there are a few nesting on arid slopes near Vantage in eastern Washington, but to find a migrant west of the Cascades is very rare.
 
Other birds recorded less than annually included a Swainson's Hawk seen soaring over the Woodland Bottoms for a few minutes on the 4th, before disappearing to the south. A Wilson's Phalarope was seen by a number of people when it spent the 10th in a Woodland Bottoms pond. Starting on the 15th a Yellow-breasted Chat spent at least 6 days singing at Willow Grove, to delight of many. 
 
While not showing on this list, a hybrid Lazuli x Indigo Bunting was found singing on territory near Cougar on the 29th. With only a handful of records in Washington state, this spot has become famous among folks who are into these phenomenon, since this is the 5th consecutive year for this hybrid at this location.
 
Lastly a migration extravaganza was witnessed on the 5th as 4000 Band-tailed Pigeons streamed north along the Columbia River at Kalama in a half hour.

WHAS recent Field Trip featured in The Daily News

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TDN image

Willapa Hills Audubon's recent field trip to local birding locations at an industrial park, a sewage lagoon and a mothballed nuclear power plant was featured in Longview's The Daily News. The participants spotted 51st species that morning including a rare (for Longview) red-shouldered hawk at Willow Grove.

How the NorthWest Weather can affect bird migration

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Image: Cliff Mass

Cliff Mass provides some interesting news of how the weather radar can be used to track and check on bird migration. Over the last week we had mostly wind from the south and birds don't like headwinds. Recently this has changed and now the birds are really on the move.

Check out his blog.

Harbingers of Spring; Wood Ducks return to Lake Sacajawea

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Wood duck pair (USFWS) On February 28, the first pair of Wood Ducks was seen on Lake Sacajawea in Longview.

We hope these ducks will nest in one of the duck boxes recently placed on the Lake. On February 12 and just in time for breeding season, Bob Arnsdorf and John Green put up new boxes and refurbished two old ones.

Three new were placed on the north island near Ocean Beach Hwy, and the 2 old boxes on that island were cleaned and repaired. On the south island, Bob and John placed 2 new boxes; they left the remaining old box which contained an enormous bee hive. There are now a total of seven duck boxes on the lake to accommodate the new Wood Duck families.

Wood Ducks are not the only signs of spring. Have you noticed the American Robins singing in the mornings? Spring is just around the corner.

  1. Indian Jack Slough’s Renaissance
  2. WHAS members John and Margaret Green featured in The Chronicle
  3. Backyard Birds Calendar 2012 for sale
  4. Urban Bird Adaptations

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