2019 Cowlitz County Bird List - January Update

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Last Updated: February 02, 2019

As usual we jump started our year with a nice list of species from the Cowlitz/Columbia Christmas Bird Count on New Year's Day.

Our most unusual finds occurred in the Woodland Bottoms, starting with our fifth record of Brant on 1/4/19. This goose spends the winter eating eel grass in Willapa Bay and other coastal areas and rarely ventures this far inland.

Even more exciting was Cowlitz's third record of Palm Warbler found on 1/28/19 and still present at the end of the month. It had been seen by a number of birders. A species that breeds in boggy areas of Canada and very northeast U.S. east of the Rockies spends its winters in the southeast U.S. and the West Indies. A much smaller number winter annually from western California up into coastal Washington with numbers decreasing as you go north.

This winter there has been a much greater influx of this species into Washington as well as some a little farther inland, and our bird is a part of that phenomenon. 

Download the pdf here.

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - Final

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Last Updated: January 04, 2019

The Cowlitz County Bird List is maintained by Russ Koppendrayer. Here is his take on 2018:

I believe this was the first time in the history of this project that we added NO new species in the final two month period. Never the less we had a very nice year breaking through the 200 barrier again with 201 species.

Three of those species were seen in the county for the first time ever. They were as follows: A Broad-winged Hawk was seen by an experienced hawk watcher who happened to be counting migrating Turkey Vultures in September at the Woodland Bottoms. A flock of Common Redpolls at a west Longview park in January that were part of a massive irruption of this species in all of Washington during the  winter of '17-'18. Also a Dickcissel made a stop at a bird bath north of Kelso in early June and was photographed by the owner.

The only species that was a big miss was Dunlin, a shorebird that can over winter here in small numbers, and if we miss them then we find them in spring migration. Not this year for whatever reason. On to a new year of exciting birding in Cowlitz County to see what it has to offer.

Download the pdf here.

Winter 2018/19 Whistler is online

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Last Updated: February 25, 2019

The Winter 2018/19 Whistler is available now.

Read more of its content: 

• Cusp of Spring Field Trip to Nisqually Refuge
• Long Beach CBC needs new coordinator for 2019
• President Message: Winging It
• Membership Form
• NW Birding Events
• All the details about local Christmas Bird Count’s
• Should winter bird feeding include hummingbirds?
• Slurping of Trumpeter Swans
• Programs and Fieldtrips

Thayer birding software available free for young birder

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Last Updated: December 07, 2018

As of now any young birder in school will be able to download the new version 7.7 of Thayer’s Birds of North America at NO COST. All others still need to buy the regular version. Thayer Birding Software founder, Peter W. Thayer, decided that this would be the perfect way to celebrate his 70th birthday.

You can get the software by using a Young Birder code, in our case use WillapaHillsAudubonYoungBirder where it asks for the promo code. Though be warned: The software package is huge, about 7.5GB and it will take a while to download depending on your internet connection.

Get the software at www.thayerbirding.com 

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - October Update

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Last Updated: November 01, 2018

We added three species to our Cowlitz year list  in the last two months, (Surf Scoter, Pectoral Sandpiper, and Pacific Loon) all of them being code 4. These codes are a way of determining the likelihood of finding a particular species and relate to the color of the square in the column immediately after the species name in the attached list.

• Code 1 - Blue - You should find this species in appropriate habitat at the correct time of year.
• Code 2 - Green - More difficult to find, but should be found in appropriate habitat in correct season with some effort.
• Code 3 - Yellow - Recorded in the county annually, but you may or may not find one personally even with great effort. 
• Code 4 - Orange - Five or more records of the species in the county, but does not occur every year.
• Code 5 - Red - At least one, but less than five records within the county.
• White - This species occurs on the Washington list, but has never been recorded in Cowlitz County.

Lets hope this makes the list more meaningful to some and one purpose of this project is to update these codes occasionally, usually in early January. 

To obtain a checklist of the birds found in any county in Washington with the code numbers go to wabirder.com and click on checklists on the left side of the page. There you scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the desired county on the map and get a list that you can print out.

Download the pdf here.

ALERT – Your Comments Needed on Long Term Conservation Strategy for the Marbled Murrelet

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Last Updated: February 06, 2023

The RDEIS (Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement) has been released. The public comment period began on September 7th and will end November 6th. This is the last time for public comment on this fifty-year plan to protect the Marbled Murrelet and the state-owned forests in SW Washington that it breeds in. 

Public meetings to provide more information will be held: 

The current timeline for completion of the Long Term Conservation Strategy is for Washington State agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the public comments and consider any new research before issuing a final EIS in about September 2019. At that point, the Washington Board of Natural Resources will vote to approve or disapprove the final plan. 

For background information on this plan to protect the Marbled Murrelet, see Maria Ruth’s article here. 

For help in writing your comments, we'll provide much more information in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the WHAS website, or you can go to this Facebook page for posts from the Marbled Murrelet Survival Project.

Your voice counts! Save this endangered species and protect your public lands.

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - August Update

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Last Updated: November 01, 2018

As usual we did not find many new species for the year in the July/August segment. The most unusual one was the third record for the county of Pine Grosbeak, found near Goat Marsh Lake on the southwest shoulders of Mt. St. Helens. Typically found farther north and closer to the Cascade crest, this was the second time this species showed up in this area in the fall, with the third sighting being being in winter west of Coldwater Lake in the middle of winter.

The other new species added was Semipalmated Sandpiper. This species has an interesting migration pattern in that it is extremely rare in Washington in the spring by going north through the eastern half of the continent. However, in fall we get small numbers coming through our state and find them in Cowlitz County in most years.

Also added were a couple species that were reported on eBird earlier in the year that had somehow been missed.

Download the pdf here.

Fall 2018 Whistler is online

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Last Updated: September 06, 2018

The Fall 2018 Whistler is available now.

Read more of its content: 

• Program: Birding Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Save the 2018 Christmas Bird Count Dates
• Presidents Message: Where the Birds Roost
• Membership Form
• NW Birding Events
• The Marbled Murrelets Need You This Fall
• 2018 Cowlitz County Bird List update
• Yellow-breasted Chat Song
• Hannah Cargill builds artificial chimney for Vaux's Swifts
• Programs and Field Trips

The Marbled Murrelets Need You This Fall

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Last Updated: February 06, 2023

By Maria M. Ruth, Black Hills Audubon Society

Next month, Washington State will be seeking public input on important decisions on the fate of this endangered seabird. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will release its Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement (RDEIS) for the Long Term Conservation Strategy for the Marbled Murrelet. This strategy will be implemented on 1.4 million acres of state forest for the next 50 years.

This is a critical time for the endangered seabird whose population in Washington has declined 44% since 2001. DNR manages 213,000 acres of land in western Washington where mature and old-growth coastal forests provide the murrelet’s preferred nesting trees. These forests are public lands and you have a voice in how they are managed.

Many of you submitted comments on the previous draft of the Environmental Impact Statement in early 2017. Your comments sent a strong message to DNR that it was not doing enough to protect the murrelets on our state lands. For that we thank you!

Now we need your help again. There will be a 60-day public comment period this fall that follows the release of the RDEIS. Our goal is to guide DNR to select an alternative that makes a significant contribution to the recovery of the endangered murrelet.

The Marbled Murrelet Coalition will be analyzing the RDEIS, and will provide background information and issue talking points—scientific, legal, and economic—for you to consider including in your public comments. We’ll also provide you with press releases, action alerts, short articles, images, and graphics you can use in your newsletters, social media, and other outreach to your membership.

Your voice. Your public land. Your trees. Your wildlife.

Follow Murrelet Survival Project on Facebook for news and updates. Check this website later for an announcement about the RDEIS as soon as it is published.

The Marbled Murrelet Coalition includes Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Olympic Forest Coalition, Seattle Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, and Washington Forest Law Center.

2018 Cowlitz County Bird List - June Update

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Last Updated: January 04, 2019

2018 is half over and we have seen birds in winter, in migration and in breeding season. This means further additions will be slow, but usually of the unexpected variety for the last six months. 

Easily the highlight of the last couple months was a Dickcissel showing up at a bird bath on Pleasant Hill Road between Castle Rock and Kelso where it made use of the facilities and was never seen again. It certainly does pay to have a water feature in the yard. This first ever record for Cowlitz County was not only noticed by the residents, but well photographed. Assuming this bird is accepted by the Washington Bird Records Committee it will be the sixteenth record for the state. With the excellent photographic documentation we would expect no problem with acceptance.

Download the pdf here.