Category: News

NCWAS Action Alert – Legislation

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The current Washington State Legislative Session, which is scheduled to run through April 21, 2021, has before it several bills addressing issues important to birds and the environment.  Audubon Washington, the National Audubon Society’s office in Washington State, is actively promoting and/or tracking developments on many of them.  For details, we encourage you to read Audubon Washington’s bill tracker to see where important bills presently stand.  Because their statuses change regularly, the tracker will be updated weekly.  NCWAS encourages our membership to contact their State Senator and Representatives in support of any or all bills of personal interest, particularly those the tracker identifies as top or key priorities.  Questions about who your senator and representatives are, or how to contact them – go to  https://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/.

Changes in the Horan Natural Area

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The Horan Natural Area sits at the mouth of the Wenatchee River. Used for regional council meetings, the area is extremely significant to the P’squosa/Wenatchi Native Americans. Today, the area is owned by the Chelan Public Utility District (PUD). Washington State Parks administers the area north of the Wenatchee River as a developed RV campground and boat launch (Confluence State Park). The area south of the Wenatchee River is managed as the Horan Natural Area. The Horan area is used extensively by local people to jog, hike, bird watch, and relax with nature. While it is not in a condition that can be considered “pristine nature”, it does provide a sense of wildness and is unique in the Wenatchee valley and the city of Wenatchee.

The Wenatchee River delta formed over eons of ice-age flood influence, recent floods and human modification. The PUD owns two dams that bookend the city of Wenatchee – Rocky Reach Dam north of town and Rock Island Dam to the south. The Rock Island Dam is the first dam to span the Columbia River and began operation in 1933. The dam has been modified to provide more water storage and today backs water up to an elevation of 613 feet above sea level. The dam’s impoundment has inundated much of the historic delta formation that extended into the Columbia River.

The photo comparison shows two photos: a 1945 black and white when Rock Island Dam’s impoundment was 600 feet and a 2015 photo when the dam impoundment was as it is today, 613 feet elevation. By moving the slider, you can witness the change that 13 feet of inundation behind Rock Island Dam created.

Rock Island Dam is operated under a federal FERC license that will be renewed soon. As the PUD moves forward with the relicensing efforts, they are considering improvements to the ecological conditions in the Horan area. Re-introduction of water to the area is likely to occur. Significant water flowing into the Horan was terminated in 2005 when the City of Wenatchee stopped venting the Miller Street storm drain into the area. Constructed ponds in the Horan began to de-water. Vegetation has fully occupied one of the primary ponds of the past. Re-introducing water will be key to improving the ecological value of the area as well as a major benefit to recreational use.

The North Central Washington Audubon Society (NCWAS) has been encouraging many improvements to the area. Primary to our interests are the re-introduction of water to a system of ponds and channels that allow water to flow between the ponds and exit to the Columbia River. NCWAS recommends reshaping the existing ponds to have shallow-angled banks that benefit a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl. Audubon supports the enhancement of important native plants, especially those that were used by the P’squoas/Wenatchi Native Americans. Audubon puts a very high priority on creating a Native American presence in the area. Modern cultural improvements could include restoring the original Miller trading post and post office to their original sites in the south-west portion of the Horan area.

Planning and implementing improvements involves a myriad of partners and interests. The NCWAS looks forward to being a part of the planning and will continue to reinforce our desires for an area with improved bird and wildlife habitat, improved ecological sustainability, a clear expression of Native American history and use in the area, educational use by our diverse population, and recreational levels that are commensurate with the area’s capacity.

Photo courtesy of Mark Oswood, NCWAS

Help protect wild birds from deadly salmonellosis

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Pine Siskin showing salmonellosis symptoms (Bruce McCammon)

Note: this blog was recently edited to clarify the distinction between salmonellosis and avian conjunctivitis.

Please take note if you are feeding birds. You may have seen recent reports about birds who appear lethargic or appear to be “puffed up”. Maybe you have found a dead bird or two in your yard. The spread of salmonellosis is a real thing and finches and siskins are getting sick and dying. It is time to be extremely vigilant about our bird feeders. If you can, take your feeders down for a period and, while they are down, give them a good, thorough cleaning and disinfecting. At a minimum, clean and disinfect your feeders frequently if you want to continue feeding.

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife posted some background information and advice for feeders on their website.

Efforts to clean and disinfect feeders will also help to minimize the threat and spread of avian conjunctivitis. The Vashon Audubon Society recently posted a nice article about preventing finch disease. You can read it here.

We can all help minimize the damage from this disease. Please do what you can to help.

2021 NCWAS Bird Photo Contest

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American White Pelicans -Bruce McCammon

2021 marks the fourth year that the North Central Washington Audubon Society has hosted a FREE bird photography contest. Beginning in 2018, we have had over one hundred entries each year. Each year, the submitted photos are rated by a panel of independent, highly qualified judges. We are grateful for the time that these volunteer experts have provided. We are also grateful for all the people who have entered the contests.

One hundred fifteen photographers have submitted several hundred photos to our contests. Why not? Everybody can submit up to three of their best images for FREE. The contest is open to everybody, no matter where you might live. The only catch is that the photos you submit need to be taken in one of the four counties included in the NCWAS territory: Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, and Ferry.

If you are interested in submitting photos to the 2021 contest, you can find all the details on our website here.

If you have any questions, you can send us an email through the “contact us” link on our website (www.ncwaudubon.org). We look forward to your entries and to another year of looking at great photos of the wonderful birds that live in or visit our area.

Amazing bird photography

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I tend to take a lot of photos of birds. As a life-long photographer, I have applied myself to wedding photography, landscape photography, portraiture, and architectural photography. Given this background, I honestly believe that bird photography may be the most challenging and, at times, quite rewarding. Many people think that wedding photography is the most challenging because you don’t get any “do-overs”. Wedding moments are present and then they are gone. But a wedding photographer has the benefit of being able to recon the venue, set up lights as needed, talk to the bride and wedding party to give instructions – all within a reasonably confined space. Bird photographers generally get none of these benefits. Birds fly in unexpectedly, land in the shade or partial sunlight, face away from the camera and fly just as the camera gains focus. Sure, we can set up lights and draw birds to a photo stage with food but true, in-the-field bird photography leans heavily on technical camera mastery, knowledge of the subject(s) being sought, and, frankly, a lot of luck.

Social media opens up our eyes to a global variety of amazing birds. There is no shortage of masterful photographers who show their work to the world on a daily basis. I marvel at the colors and patterns of birds I have never heard of as I admire the clarity and beautiful light the photographer used to give me their photo. I am frequently inspired as I scan through dozens of photos each night and try to reverse engineer how a photo was taken.

Bird photographers tend to be a passionate bunch. As one’s skills with camera technology improve we begin to challenge ourselves to do better – gain better focus, recognize the moment a bird provides a great pose, know that light will only show magnificent feather iridescence for a fleeting second, and that patience is key to success. So is a willingness to repeatedly fail. Behind every great bird photo there are millions of pixels in the digital bin.

As a case study of the passion and patience of a master bird photographer, I’d like to introduce you to Mike Forsberg, a Great Plains photographer with a penchant for birds (https://www.michaelforsberg.com/). I learned about Mike when I was researching American Dippers and looking for needed background information about this amazing bird – America’s only aquatic songbird.

American Dipper

Our fast-water, Cascade streams and rivers are home to many American Dippers. I always wonder what this bird does underwater. If you have watched them dive and surface with a hellgrammite in its beak, you have probably wondered about the “how” of the bird’s submerged chase.

Mike Forsberg was determined to get a photo of an American Dipper underwater. Possessing the requisite skills and equipment allowed Mike to pursue this challenge over time. He teamed up with a local guide on the Poudre River in Colorado and produced an amazing collection of stills and video to show us the remarkable “Trout with Feathers”.

Enjoy his 8:51 second video.

Spanish bird names

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We may hear different versions of the Black-capped Chickadee song if we are listening to one in Alabama or in Washington. Bird songs have regional dialects, just like humans. So it shouldn’t come a big surprise to learn that there are many variations of Spanish names for bird species. One of our oldest languages, Spanish has been adapted over time to suit regional uses and needs.

The challenge of settling on a set of Spanish names for use in Version 11 of the NCWAS Common Birds of North Central Washington bird poster has produced a compilation of names from five reputable sources: the Cornell Lab, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Sibley, Kaufman and, of course, Audubon. Amazingly, there is very little overlap between these sources.

A PDF version of the spreadsheet containing the Spanish names is available in our “Downloadable Resources” section found here.

We sent this table out for comment to a wide variety of people in Latino and scientific communities. Everyone recognized that there is simply not a silver bullet for standardizing the names. Several people pointed out that many Latin American academics and bird guides are using a variety of phone-based apps to identify birds. Of the available apps, Merlin and eBird seem to be the most common sources for Spanish bird names. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is behind these apps. Our initial choice of standard Spanish bird names will, therefore, use the names provided by the Cornell Lab.

We recognize that the Cornell names may not fit perfectly within our local Latino community and we are open to changing the names if local expertise can be found and documented. Until then, we are very happy to provide the table of names as a resource for others who may want to pursue refinement and corrections. Let us know what you think. You can always send us comments through our website.

Common Birds of North Central Washington poster

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The North Central Washington Audubon Society has given away hundreds of our popular poster that features common birds in our four-county area. We are always looking for ways to make this poster more useful for people who are interested in birds – especially kids. We are pleased to announce that Version 11 of the poster will be available soon.

Version 11? Holy Crow! Yes, when we make a substantial revision to the poster we issue a new version number. Version 11 contains some wonderful changes. First, there are two new birds on the poster: the Red-breasted Nuthatch and the American Wigeon. To make room for these two birds, we dropped the Rock Pigeon thinking that everyone is familiar with this non-native species. The poster was also rearranged a bit to fit the new birds into the mix.

Common Birds of North Central Washington, Version 11
Common Birds of NC Washington V11

The biggest change we made in Version 11 is the addition of Spanish names for each of the bird species. It turns out that settling on a Spanish name is really quite challenging. We collected five different sets of Spanish names from reputable sources: Sibley, Audubon, Cornell Labs, Kenn Kaufman’s Spanish field guide, and a few from local, Latino birders. Unfortunately, there is no strong similarity in the different sets of names. We asked for opinions and options from many local birders and finally decided to standardize the Spanish names using the ones provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Cornell Lab is a well-respected source for bird information. When we learned that many academic birders in Mexico were using a Mexican version of Cornell’s Merlin app to identify birds in Mexico, we made the decision to adopt Cornell as our standard. We expect to hear that there are naming options that make more sense for the local Latino community. We will keep track of suggestions and may incorporate them in a future version of the poster.

While we were adapting the poster to show the Spanish names, we also updated the sizes of the birds based on the lengths provide on the Cornell website www.allaboutbirds.org. We kept the poster size at 11×17 inches since that is easily printed and framed.

We will be distributing a few posters to some of our local bird experts for review and comment. Once we have those comments back and make any needed changes, we will let our supply of Version 10 dwindle down and begin the distribution of Version 11. We hope that you will enjoy the new version of the poster as much as the previous ones. You can always send us comments through our website.

Shrub-steppe conservation – recorded Zoom presentation

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Organizations and individuals are creatively delivering content when we can not get together face-to-face. Zoom meetings have become a common solution for speakers to present information.

We posted three Zoom opportunities in a previous blog. Two of the three are now complete. Luckily, the Audubon program titled Protecting Birds and the Places They Need was recorded and is now available to view. You can watch the one hour program here.

60th Anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

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Submitted by Tim and Mary Gallagher. Reprinted from the Wild Phlox newsletter.

In the waning days of his administration, on December 6, 1960, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower designated 9 million acres in northeast Alaska as the Arctic National Wildlife Range.

Twenty years later, on November 12, 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed in the U.S. Congress and Democratic President Jimmy Carter signed it into law on December 2 in the last days of his administration. This doubled the size of the Arctic Range and renamed it the Arctic Refuge.

The 1970’s were a time of oil embargoes and long lines at gas stations, clearly still fresh in many legislator’s minds.  Within the 1980 legislation 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain was portioned out for further study.  This area called Section 1002 was to be studied for its wildlife and wilderness value but also oil and gas potential.

Decades have passed, and another administration is coming to an end. During this time, we have improved efficiency in vehicles and developed electric cars and trucks.  We understand how important and fragile the coastal plain is to migrating nesting birds from all over the world. We know the critical nutrition it provides for the Porcupine Caribou herd, an animal essential to the survival of the indigenous Gwich’in people of Alaska and Canada.  Most importantly we now understand the consequences of fossil fuel extraction and impacts to climate change. Over two-thirds of the American people oppose drilling in this unique wilderness.

Yet, this outgoing Administration just announced a “call for nominations” in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, asking oil companies to identify preferred areas on the Arctic Refuge’s ecologically sensitive coastal plain to lease for oil drilling. The current Interior Department has set in motion the process for approving a massive new seismic testing program for nearly a half million acres of the coastal plain. Their proposal would involve hundreds of miles of “roads”, resulting from 90,000-pound seismic vehicles traveling with bulldozer convoys.  These conveys will carry supplies for up to 180 workers, threatening denning polar bears.

With the continued volatility in oil markets and major U.S. and international banks unwilling to invest in Arctic oil, the economic argument no longer is valid.  This combined with significant environmental and social impacts should require an environmental review.

What can you do to celebrate the 60th Anniversary?

  1. Support organizations like National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and Alaska Wilderness League that have filed lawsuits against the current administration drilling in the Refuge or efforts to begin seismic testing.
  2. Call or email the oil companies and let them know you do not want them to drill in the Refuge.  Many major corporations such as British Petroleum have started to exit the Arctic.
  3. Call or email car companies and ask for better fuel efficiency and electric cars that can go further on one charge.
  4. Call or Email your Congressional Representatives and let them know how you feel about protecting the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge and the Trump Administration’s efforts to fast-forward drilling.
  5. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, showing your support for the Refuge.
  6. Let President-elect Biden know you want him to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and keep it as a Day One priority for his administration.
  7. Watch for online petitions and information on helping the Refuge and share them with your family and friends.

We need to come together and protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations would be a good start.

“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”

President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, when he signed the Wilderness Act into law in 1964.

Methow Valley Bird Banding 2020

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American Redstart. Photo by Julie Hovis.

The year 2020 marked the fourth nesting season I have operated a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) bird banding station in the Methow Valley. MAPS is administered by the Institute for Bird Populations and is a continent-wide collaborative banding program that contributes to the conservation of birds and their habitats by monitoring key demographic parameters such as productivity, recruitment, and survival. During a MAPS banding session, birds are captured in mist nets, extracted and placed in cloth holding bags (1 bird per bag), and brought to a central processing location where they are identified to species and banded on the right leg with a uniquely numbered band issued by the Federal Bird Banding Laboratory. Data on age, sex, breeding condition, weight, fat, molt, and feather wear are recorded for each bird before it is released. You can learn more about the MAPS program by visiting the Institute for Bird Populations’ web site.

Like everything else in 2020, the ability to operate the MAPS station in the midst of a global pandemic was questionable. Would the landowners allow me to band on their property? Would any volunteers be willing to help? And would it be possible to capture, band, and process birds while wearing a mask? Fortunately, the landowners and volunteers said yes, and with some trial and error we adapted to wearing masks and safely completed all 7 of the required MAPS banding sessions.

Volunteers extracting a bird from a mist net. Photo by Julie Hovis.

I have been banding birds for 14 years, and despite the questionable start 2020 turned out to be my most productive MAPS season ever with a total of 195 captured birds and 32 different species! The most commonly captured species were MacGillivray’s Warbler (25 captures), Yellow Warbler (22 captures), and Purple Finch (16 captures). Other notable species included American Redstart, Nashville Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, and Red-naped Sapsucker.

MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Purple Finch. Photos by Julie Hovis.

An important aspect of banding is age determination. In general, birds can be aged as being in their hatch year (HY), second year (SY), or after second year (ASY) by examining the color and condition of their flight feathers. The Lazuli Bunting provides an excellent example of how feathers are used to age a bird. Pictured below on the left is the wing of a SY male; the retained brown juvenile feathers indicate this bird hatched in the previous year. The wing on the right is an ASY male; the lack of brown feathers indicates this bird hatched prior to the previous year. It’s not always that easy, and for some species it’s downright impossible, but with practice many species can be aged accurately.

SY (left) and ASY (right) male Lazuli Buntings. Photos by Julie Hovis.

For species where the males and females look alike, banding also provides an opportunity to determine a bird’s sex, such as the brood patch on this female Song Sparrow.

Female Song Sparrow brood patch. Photo by Julie Hovis.

One of the perks of bird banding is being able to see things up close and personal. This year we caught several Cedar Waxwings and the detail of the waxy tips on the secondary feathers was amazing.

Cedar Waxwing. Photos by Julie Hovis.

My banding activities are over for this year, but I am planning to operate the MAPS station again in 2021 (hopefully in a world free of COVID-19). I’ll post updates starting in June, so if you’re interested be sure to check back then.