Final 2016 Cowlitz County Bird List
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Acorn Woodpecker - Image courtesy of the US FWS
Here is what bird list maintainer Russ Koppendrayer's says of 2016:
Download the pdf file here.
Winter 2016 Whistler is online
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The Fall 2016 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- Lake Scajawea Bird Walk and Count
- WHAS sponsors Arizona field Trip
- Membership Form
- NW Bird Events
- 2016 Christmas Bird Count Details
- Ongoing Citizen Science at home “Project Feeder Watch”
- Bring more birds to your home with native plants
- Coffee 101
- During this dark season, remember that too much light can be hard on wildlife
- Programs and Fieldtrips
September/October 2016 Cowlitz County Bird List
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Clark's Nutcracker - Image courtesy of the US FWS
Russ Koppendrayer's says of the last two months:
Only three species added to the list in the last couple months as is typical for this time of year. Also fairly typical was the fact that all three are rare visitors to our area. An amazing ten Clark's Nutcrackers were seen at the Forest Learning Center near the Mt. St. Helens National Monument. This species is common to the Cascade crest near Mt. Adams, but this is only the third record in Cowlitz County. A Brown Pelican was photographed flying rapidly UPSTREAM at Woodland, a species that rarely comes anywhere near this far up the Columbia and is more associated with salt water. Also a third record for Cowlitz was a Pelagic Cormorant photographed swimming in the Columbia at Woodland. As its name suggests this too is a species that rarely gets upstream past the brackish water of the estuary.
Two months left for some more exciting finds, so as usual get out there and do some birding.
Download the pdf file here.
Vaux's Swifts have been seen in Rainier, OR
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Linda Jennings reported that on Saturday, August 13, 259 Vaux's Swifts roosted in the chimney of Carpet One in Rainier, across highway 30 from the City Hall. And on Monday, August 15, she counted 374 using the chimney.
People 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 usually starts in September, affording us more opportunities to view hundreds of them entering the chimney.) You can park along Highway 30 or along A Street, or in parking lots nearby.
If you have questions or info to share you may call Darrel Whipple at 503-556-9838, or
June 2016 Cowlitz County Bird List
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Russ Koppendrayer's says of 2016 so far:
We have reached the half way point in the year with exactly the same number of species as last year at this time when we set a record for the most species seen in the county for a calendar year in the ten years of this project. Last year we did have a phenomenal run of unusual species from mid-October through mid-December to reach that 207 species total. Since we have seen the winter birds and a migration into the breeding season, additions to the 192 species to date will come much slower and I'll be sending updates every two months rather than monthly for the rest of the year as usual.
Download the pdf file here.
Summer 2016 Whistler is online
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The Summer 2016 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- WHAS has a new Board
- Hummingbird feeder info
- Membership Form
- NW Bird Events
- Update on the Gourds installed at Indian Jack Slough
- Update on the Fallen Leave Niche
- Images of RB Nuthatch and Cormorant
- WHAS will be at Bob’s Kids day
- Would-be rescuers should leave young wildlife alone
- Programs and Fieldtrips
April 2016 Cowlitz County Bird List
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April was slower than usual for adding new species to the list, possibly due to a lack of coverage as some of our more active birders spent big portions of the month out of the county. There were no reports of unexpected species. Even Cassin's Vireo and Nashville Warbler which show as less than annual probably pass through in small numbers each year as migrants, but aren't seen or reported every year. Since they don't stay to nest they can be missed some years. Many of the April additions were in the last week and as migration peaks in May we should be finding more on a regular basis this month, the most exciting time for many birders.
Spring 2016 Whistler is online
- Details
The Spring 2016 Whistler is available now.
Read more of its content:
- Annual WHAS Dinner and Meeting on March 26, 2016
- WHAS Slate of Candidates for 2016 Election
- A Message to Our National Members
- Membership Form
- NW Bird Events
- WHAS sponsors a Nature Library
- 34th Cowlitz CBC results
- Volunteer for Earth Day
- Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Survey
- WHAS Board Retreat
- Fare Thee Well
- Birds of the Lower Columbia River
- Action Alert – Exploratory Mining Proposal for Mt St Helens
- Get nest boxes ready for new occupants
- Nesting and Roosting Boxes for Birds
- Call for Citizen Scientists
- 2015 Cowlitz County Bird List
- Programs and Fieldtrips
WHAS Sponsors a Nature Library
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Willapa Hills Audubon Society has kindly agreed to sponsor the Fallen Leaf Nature Library. It is a collection of approximately 700 used books and 100 VHS videos on natural history and environmental education, which we hope to make available to Longview/Kelso families and teachers for circulation. These general interest books and videos, donated by Ann and David Cordero, Marie Fernandez, Sherry Evans, Lynn Smith, Gloria Nichols and others, would be available to anyone free of charge for a month or longer to stimulate an interest in the natural world and promote literacy. Volunteer staff could provide
simple interpretation such as touch tables, exhibits, displays, story times, demonstrations and experiments, homework help, or preparation for the Science Olympiad—any nature activity they choose to lead in the space where the library resides.
That is the key: where will we put this library? Lower Columbia College has approved the use of the McLaughlin Community Resource Center in the Health and Science Building for the nature library! LCC has been very gracious about this prospect, saying that it is the kind of thing for which the room
was intended and that this will be a mutually beneficial relationship to be continued as long as it works for both parties and which can be terminated by either party.
Does this sound like fun? You can help make this happen! We will need volunteers (as much or as little time as you like) and ideas for interpretive activities.
If you would like to volunteer, please contact
Together we can provide a new community resource for children, books to supplement classroom lessons, interaction between people with natural history interests, and better visibility for WHAS.
Call for Citizen Scientists!
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Audubon Washington's new citizen-science project is looking for volunteers! Participate in a regional volunteer monitoring effort, learn about coastal ecology, meet like-minded community members, and spend time near the water!
WHAT: Observe intertidal habitat use of waterbirds
WHO: Be part of a team of scientists including the University of Washington (UW), NOAA Fisheries (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WA DNR)
WHEN: Waterbird surveys will be conducted monthly during low tides, recording the abundance and behavior of birds in vegetated and unvegetated patches. Surveys will occur from mid-March through September 2016.
WHERE: Shore-based surveys of intertidal habitats will occur at fixed sites around Puget Sound and in Willapa Bay.
- First 2016 Cowlitz County Bird List (January)
- Final 2015 Cowlitz County Bird List
- The Great Backyard Bird Count
- Northern Mockingbird seen at Lake Sacajawea
- Rare Birdsighting in Western WA: Yellow-throated Warbler
- October 2015 Cowlitz County Bird List
- Winter 2015 Whistler is online
- Precipitous Decline of Marbled Murrelet in Washington – How You Can Help
- August 2015 Cowlitz County Bird List
- Columbia Riverkeeper's new Handford video