December 20, 2019 - Lewis County Christmas Bird Count

This time of year, I enjoy participating in the Christmas Bird counts, as it helps hone my birding skills, I get to participate in a great hobby with some excellent people, and - every once in a while - get to find some good birds.

 

All CBCs take place between December 14 and January 5 inclusive.  This year Black Hills Audubon once again sponsored a circle in Lewis County on Friday, Dec 20th.  A CBC circle is 15 miles across and the boundaries remain the same year after year.  Each circle is divided into sub-areas and teams are sent out to count as many birds as are seen and heard.

 

As a 16 year old, “young birder” Dalton Spencer, organized and complied the numbers for a new Christmas Bird Count in Lewis County, WA.  I volunteered, once again, to assist with this - the third - Lewis County CBC, and was pleased to again be partnered with Dalton himself, who is pursuing a degree in the Fish and Wildlife Management program at Montana State.

Our counting efforts this year were a bit truncated by the recent flooding in the Chehalis River Basin.  There have been calls from local citizens to “do something” about the recent floods, including a push to dam and dike the river.  The river rises, as it has done for thousands of years, and yet the County allows structures to be erected on land that is inundated every few years.  As a taxpayer, I don’t understand why the public should have to bail out people who have chosen to build on a known flood plain.

 

Last year, we had access to the Centralia Coal Mine, which is being phased-out due to economic and operational considerations.  This year, the mine was closed to our access, as Dalton’s grandfather had to work to keep pumps going due to the heavy rains and flooding in the Hanagan Valley.

 

Kept from the “good” parts of the mine, we birded pretty intensively along the County roads and neighborhoods.  Keeping out of the high water was a challenge, but we did find a few birds.  I think the best of our day was when we stopped to check out a homeowner’s bird feeder along the Bucoda highway.  A larger “sparrow” chowing-down the seeds turned out to be a Black-headed Grosbeak!

 

The bulk of this species is wintering in Mexico in late December, but there are always a few "stragglers" that winter to the north.  We were very pleased to tally the bird on the Count.

 

Dalton sent the following to Tweeters:  “… 26 intrepid birders swam through the floodwaters of Lewis County to help count the few birds that were not also swimming alongside us. This marked the 3rd ever Lewis County CBC and it definitely will go down as one of the most memorable for those involved.

 

“We tallied a total of 92 species on count day and a total of 11 other species for count week. Given the weather conditions, lower numbers were to be expected. This year 16,385 individual birds were count as opposed to last year's 20,087. 

 

“Highlights included a Black Headed Grosbeak coming to a feeder near Bucoda, a Sandhill Crane seen off Big Hanaford Rd, and a Short-Eared Owl seen from Pleasant Valley. 

 

“We had a total of 8 new species for count too. Without including the previously mentioned species we also found California Quail, Ruffed Grouse, Barn Owl, Townsend's Warbler, and Evening Grosbeak.

 

“The European Starling was once again the most commonly detected species with 3,142 individuals counted. Northern Pintail (1,865) and Green-Winged Teal (1,329) came in second and third respectively. 

 

“The most notable increases amongst the species detected were Trumpeter Swan an increase of almost 1600%. Cedar Waxwing, Green-winged Teal, Wilson's Snipe, Bushtit, and American Pipit were amongst those with the largest increases from last year.

 

“Hopefully next year the weather is better and the birds are more easily found.

 

The end of the day is celebrated with a dinner get-together where participants share their sightings and stories, warm beverages and dinner.

 

There is no limit to how many CBCs one can join so please consider helping out with one next Winter.  There is room for beginning and experienced birders and everyone in between.  Remember - birding in December is ‘way better than being at the mall in December!!!!

 

 

 

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