December 21 - Solstice - Lewis County CBC

Not a bad way to spend the shortest day of the year! 

I was up early to make a thermos of coffee and loaded my gear into the car.  Not yet having had a full cup of coffee, I dropped my "go-to" pair of Alpen 10x42 Wings ED binoculars.  I didn't notice until I began birding when the sun came up that I'd knocked the barrels of the binocs out of alignment!!

I drove over to Tumwater to meet Kathleen Snyder and fellow birders Mary and Lauren at 7 a.m.  Kathleen drove us down to Centralia to take part in the Lewis County Christmas Bird Count.  Lewis County birder Dalton Spencer organized the group at 8 a.m., and Kathleen & I joined him to drive out to the TransAlta steam plant,

TransAlta Steam Plant

where we met his grandfather, Denny, to bird the Coal Mine lands.

Seventy percent of sub-bituminous coal used by the plant used to be delivered to the TransAlta power plant by truck from the strip mine, which was the largest coal mine in the state of Washington, until it was closed down on November 27, 2006.  Coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming has also been transported by rail to be burned at the plant since 1989, but was only used to supplement Centralia Coal mine coal until 2006.  By 2008, the plant was burning 100% Powder River basin coal, as it is apparently cheaper to bring coal in from Wyoming than to use local coal!?!?! 

The company is doing a lot of reclamation on the site, and the habitats range from pretty bare ground, to grasslands, to second-growth fir forest.

The draw for birding here is the many ponds and wetland areas that attract waterfowl and marsh birds

We had to be accompanied by Denny, who is an employee of TransAlta, as the site is otherwise closed to the public.  He was quite the friendly guy, and obviously knew his birds.  It was apparent that he and Dalton had birded the area many times previously.

As we started into the area, we found a Red-tailed Hawk breakfasting on a duck

The Hawk was able to carry breakfast off to a quieter dining area

It flushed as we passed by, and a pair of Ravens immediately came down to see if there were any morsels remaining

Not much left for the Ravens

Soon after, we found a young Cooper's Hawk hunting for her own breakfast

Immature Coop

Our count on passerines was fairly low, as we mostly drove the muddy roads, but we did stop to check out sparrow and chickadee flocks when we heard or saw them.  There were quite a few Song Sparrows, and we had a half-dozen Virginia Rails respond to our "pishing" from their lairs in the cattails.

Other bird seen included a distant Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike

Bewick's Wrens

Bewick's Wren in the Himalaya Blackberry briar patch

and a flock of Bushtits

Female Bushtits have yellow eyes

We didn’t find any terribly unusual birds on our section, and finished the day with 53 species.

This Spring, 1,000 acres of the 14,000-acre Coal Mine site was proposed for a large solar power generation project.  The Tono Solar project would generate up to 180 megawatts of electricity, and is in line with Canadian-owned Trans Alta’s push toward renewable energy.  I haven’t heard plans for the other 13,000 acres, although it would make a great wildlife area!  We did see a small herd of elk along the way.

We got back to the church at 4:30, and there was a wonderful warm potato and ham soup waiting for us!  The countdown following indicated that the birders had seen 98 species through the day.  The more exciting finds included a Black Phoebe in town, and a Mockingbird off the Jackson Highway and North Fork Road at Lucas Creek Rd.  It was another fun day of birding, and assisting with "Citizen Science".

And - the days get longer for the next six months!

Our Centralia Steam Plant eBird Checklist is Here