The mission of Kittitas MARCH 2020 Audubon is to develop an appreciation of nature through education and conservation, with a focus on birds. A Long History of the THURSDAY, MARCH 19TH • 7:00PM Northern Spotted Owl Join us Thursday, March 19th, where our guest speaker, Ashlee Mikkelsen, will be discussing the long history of the Northern Spotted Owl. She will be explaining the monitoring effort, the status of owls on the Cle Elum district, as well as the current threats to our population and future directions of spotted owl management. Ashlee Mikkelsen grew up in Wenatchee and received her Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Montana in 2013. For the past five years, she has been working on the Northern Spotted Owl population monitoring project. The goal of this project is to estimate demographic parameters and population sizes of the owls as part of the Northwest Forest Plan. In 2018 Ashlee began work on a Master’s of Science degree at Oregon State University on physiological stress patterns in juvenile Northern Spotted Owls and the effects it may have on population demographics.
I rejoice that there are owls…They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have. — Henry David Thoreau
All Audubon meetings, held on the 3rd Thursday of each month, 7:00pm (except for Jan 23, 2020, which was the 4th Thursday), September through May (except December), at the Hal Holmes Center next to the Ellensburg Public Library, are open to the public. Please come and meet with us, and stay afterwards for juice, treats, and conversation. Many thanks to the Ellensburg Public Library for sponsoring our meetings!
The Hooter • Kittitas Audubon’s Newsletter kittitas audubon • www.kittitasaudubon.org From the February 6th Board Meeting • Gloria Baldi BOARD MEMBERS • The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival is March 20 to 22nd. PRESIDENT Judy Hallisey...... 270.792.9188 • The second CWU KAS Scholarship recipient, Bridget Smith, gave a presentation on her senior year project. She is studying the range shift of the American Pica to determine if VICE PRESIDENT Jan Demorest...... 509.933.1179 there is a correlation to climate change. Pikas are considered climate indicator species. They are lagomorphs, rather than rodents, and do not hibernate. Living in talus slopes in SECRETARY mountainous areas, they work all summer to build “haystacks” for winter consumption. Jim Briggs...... 509.933.2231 Because they are temperature sensitive, they can die of hyperthermia. Temperatures TREASURER correlation with elevation. Sharon Lumsden...... 509.968.3889 Bridget is attempting to answer three questions. (a) Do temperatures affect the presence CLIMATE CHANGE of pikas? (b) Are lower (warmer) elevation sites likely to be vacant? (c) Does the talus Barry Brunson...... 270.792.9186 provide enough temperature modulation? CONSERVATION Seven sites located on the Palouse to Cascades Trail and Manastash Ridge are being Norm Peck...... 509.933.4233 investigated, with temperatures taken both surface and sub-surface. Preliminary findings EDUCATION do not indicate that pika occupancy correlates with elevation, but she is planning to Open Position...... contact us! continue the study. FIELD TRIPS • Laura Busby with Washington State Parks met to continue discussion about networking Steve Moore...... 509.933.1179 with KAS on some projects. Some suggestions included birding state parks, contests HISTORIAN involving art or photography, and school interactions regarding nature. Open Position...... contact us! • The KEEN Bird Festival is May 8 to 10th. KAS will participate and details are being planned. MEMBERSHIP (WILL YOU VOLUNTEER TO ASSIST?) Kris Kaylor...... 509.304.4103 • Kittitas Land Conservation Trust has 40 acres and requests help with determining ways to PAST PRESIDENT improve bird habitat and help provide interpretation for visitors; perhaps a field trip would Tom Gauron...... 509.968.3175 be in order. PROGRAMS • Mid-Columbia Fisheries would like to recruit KAS to ‘adopt’ a stream for twice-annual Lesley McGalliard...... 509.933.2812 volunteer cleanup efforts. KAS would have an assigned segment of a particular stream. PUBLICITY Open Position...... contact us! • Get Intimate with the Shrub Steppe (GISS) is coming in May. Booth ideas are being considered. SCHOLARSHIPS Gloria Baldi...... 509.933.1558 • Bird app development with Washington Hometown in Ellensburg is interested in producing an interactive local map with KAS help. Barry Brunson is pursuing this; it is noted eBird NEWSLETTER Kris Kaylor...... 509.304.4103 already has something similar. *BLUEBIRD BOXES • Barry Brunson managed a table for KAS at the KEEN Winter Fair, a productive event with Jan Demorest...... 509.933.1179 a steady stream of visitors who had many questions regarding climate change and birds. *SOCIAL GREETER • The raptor survey numbers on February 11th were affected by strong winds. Kay Forsythe...... 509.925.2356 • Judy Hallisey has been working with Dick Carkner and Audubon WA’s Adam Maxwell on *CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT obtaining signatures for a letter to the WA legislature about the Natural Climate Solutions Phil Mattocks initiative. • The solar park proposal for Cle Elum was discussed. (Note: The Feb 12th issue of the Daily KAS Board Meetings are held at Record reported that the hearing examiner denied the conditional use permit for the 4:30pm on the 1st Thursday of each proposal because of possible detrimental effects.) month at the Methodist Church across from The Ellensburg Library. These Join the Board on March 5th at 4:30. Love to have you share your ideas!! meetings are open to the public and all Audubon members—please come and join in the discussions. Meetings adjourn by 6:00 or 6:30pm, then we all NEEDED: PUBLICITY CHAIR • EDUCATION CHAIR go out for a sociable dinner—NO business discussion allowed! and HISTORIAN *Non-voting members Email Judy Hallisey: [email protected] if you are willing.
2 The Hooter • March 2020 • Kittitas Audubon’s Newsletter 2019-2020 Winter Raptor Surveys. Report by Steve Moore This organized count of raptors over broad areas of the Northwest was completed in February. In Ellensburg, our numbers were down from January on all three driving routes, as it was a typically windy day, with cold 20 mph air blowing through our valley. But the pattern was similar to previous counts, with large numbers of Bald Eagles in the northeast part of the valley, abundant Redtails (mostly flying or on the ground — not driven mileage of 23,000. Of and 1,800 Bald Eagles. An most abundant in December perched!), and small amounts these routes, the 60 covering interactive map showing the 2019. In Washington, the of Kestrels, falcons, harriers much of the area of eastern geographic abundance of Methow Valley and our own and Cooper’s Hawks. Washington are new this year. each species can be viewed at Kittitas Valley (arrow) attract The survey is sponsored by The total number of birds the East Cascades Audubon large numbers, along with the East Cascades Audubon of counted area-wide in January website (ecaudubon.org). Columbia River and coastal Bend, Oregon. Volunteers was 19,000, including 9,600 The map shown here is an areas. (Note that western from three states cover 360 Redtails, 4,500 Kestrels, excerpt, recording where, for Washington will be included in driving routes for a total 1,900 Rough-legged Hawks, example, Bald Eagles were the survey at a future date.) February 1st Birdwalk: Leaders: Terry and Dick Carkner Starlings greeted us in the parking lot and were seen often throughout the walk, and we could see them using holes in trees for nests. The day started as a lovely sunny morning, but clouds moved in and began to drizzle after 10 am. Birders in Join us March 7th attendance: Dick and Terry Carkner, Kris Kaylor and her sister, Kelly Owen, Alyssa, who is new in town, and is with conservation commission, and Paul, new to the for the next birdwalks, but has been to several monthly programs. Saturday Birdwalk Downey Woodpeckers Kestrel Red-winged Blackbirds 8:00am • Irene Rinehart Park Raven Juncos Mergansers Steve Moore and Jan Demorest to lead. House Finches Red-tail Hawk Chickadees Canadian Geese Magpies
kittitas audubon • www.kittitasaudubon.org 3 A Tea-Kettle Song Story and photo by Thomas Bancroft
A loud booming song came rattling up the ravine. It sounded like The general warming of the Eastern United States over the last “tea-kettle-tea-kettle-tea-kettle,” then a pause and more “tea- fifty years has allowed Carolina Wrens to move north and kettle-tea-kettles.” I jumped from foot to foot, trying to stay warm increase in numbers. Severe winters, especially ones with snow as I scanned the deciduous hardwood forest. The temperature that lasts for several weeks, knock back populations substantially. hung around freezing, and I hadn’t brought enough layers to Christmas Bird Count data for Pennsylvania shows a significant Pennsylvania for doing this Christmas Bird Count. crash after a particularly harsh winter in the mid-1990s. This The melody jumped to the other side of the gully, but nothing wren has bounced back, though. seemed to have moved under the massive red oaks and hickories. Perhaps, it’s that ability to recover after a catastrophe that was The bird should be hopping through the leafless bushes, maybe making me want to find this bird. A decade ago, I moved to clinging to the bark on one of those trees, or zipping along a Seattle, following my wife’s death and a job loss. It took a while branch, all places that it should be easily visible. I shuffled to my to find the right conditions to make friends, too. left twenty paces, trying to get the blood moving, and started a “che-wortel, che-wortel, che-wortel” interrupted my thoughts. It systematic search. I knew what the bird was, a Carolina Wren, came from farther down the valley and closer to the trail. The but for some unknown reason, I desperately wanted to see it. wren had moved, and I hurried along. There it sat, bouncing up These guys are small and chunky with a reddish-brown back and and down on those two thin legs, looking left and right, no cap. Their white eyebrow and dark eyeliner give them a indication of being cold. distinguished look, and that long barred tail radiates energy. They A pair lived in this ravine throughout those years following the always seem to be at high speeds, tackling life with gusto. Maybe population crash. Another couple lived through those times in it was envy that made me want to find it. the black walnut grove around my boyhood home. They tried to This was one of the first birds I’d learned as a small child. My nest a few times on the back porch of that house where my sisters still have the farm where I grew up, and our place was just sisters still live. These birds persevered through those hard times. a quarter-mile up the hill from this location. For several years, a The wren flitted up through a bush and looked right at me. It pair tried to nest in a little shed. A small cardboard box sat on a seemed to say, “What are you thinking about? Get on with it!” It high shelf just above the lawnmower. They built their little grass then darted left and dashed down over the hill. I stared for a while cup in there and laid their creamy-white eggs with rusty brown and then turned to continue my count. That ball of energy had spots. I’d try to sneak in and pull out the lawnmower without somehow warmed me up. disturbing them. I don’t know if they ever were successful there. Once, late in the summer, I used a step ladder to look into the box and found four cold eggs still nicely clumped in the perfectly woven nest. That shed is gone now. These little birds remind me of the Bewick’s Wrens that live in my Seattle yard. Bewick’s occasionally visit my suet in winter, and when it is warm, one will sing from the tops of bushes in my front yard. These two species are in separate genera but closely related. When we had heavy snows on the farm, Carolina Wrens occasionally came to our feeders, but their primary food was insects and spiders even in winter.
4 The Hooter • March 2020 • Kittitas Audubon’s Newsletter Not So Mundane Story and photo by Thomas Bancroft
A movement caught my eye on the chilly January day. The Argentina. A few were also in Chile, Equator, and Columbia. Of glimpse had come from under the leafless branches of some all the grebe species in the Western Hemisphere, Pied-bills have willows and cottonwoods. A small pond was tucked in this the most extensive distribution. thicket at Magnuson Park. I froze but could see nothing until I The one in Magnuson Park slowly turned a complete circle slowly crouched down. There, floating on the water, was a while keeping one eye on me. Water droplets were beaded on football-sized mass of feathers, tan along the waterline and its back and sides. The feathers seemed slicked down but blacker above. It had two black eyes that glared at me from a waterproof. The bill still had the black ring mid-way out and the smallish head, probably pondering if I was friend or foe. A tiny bluish-white base. Usually, they lose that band, and the bill Pied-billed Grebe drifted less than 20 feet from me. becomes more yellowish-brown in the non-breeding season. Typically, they slink away, so I decided to settle here and see Perhaps, its breeding hormones were still flowing here in what it would do. These grebes are permanent residents in the January. Puget Trough, but over much of the United States, they are It radiated a sense of pride, confidence. In Celtic mythology, migratory. People seldom see them flying because they travel the grebe guards the spirit world and helps humans find beauty at night and rarely fly to escape a disturbance. Usually, Pied- where they otherwise might not. The contours of its body, the bills dive and swim away, often undetected. People on birding S-shape of its neck, tautness of its muscles all projected outings will often comment, “Oh, it’s just a grebe,” wanting I splendor. Suddenly, the grebe just sank out of sight, hardly presume to see something more colorful, bigger, less mundane. making a ripple. No dive, it just dropped as if it was a rock Their distribution is fascinating with breeding populations in gently placed on the surface. The bird must have compressed both North and South America. Although a few are in its body feathers, squeezing out the trapped air, and tightened Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Central America, generally, a big its chest muscles to make its air sacs smaller, decreasing its geographic gap exists between those groups on each continent. buoyancy. I shook my head as I got back to my feet. Birds are For North America, the animation of weekly abundance data so marvelous. from eBird showed that in January, Pied-bills were concentrated in Florida and along the Southeast coastal plains and across into Texas and Northeastern Mexico. Lots were also in the central valley of California and then a few here in Puget Sound. Some were scattered elsewhere, especially Central Mexico and near the Gulf of California. By March, birds had moved into the Great Plains and by late April had extended into the Canadian prairies, Central Washington, and British Columbia. Their numbers in the Southeast had plummeted by April, but those in central California remained pretty constant. In South America, the migration was in the opposite direction. In late January, lots were in Northeastern Brazil and then scattered to northern Argentina. As the year progressed, they migrated south to breed from Southern Brazil into Central
kittitas audubon • www.kittitasaudubon.org 5 Migratory Bird Treaty Act: threatened and endangered The MBTA was passed into US law in 1918, following the 1916 joint signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty by President Wilson and King George V of Great Britain. It has been a mainstay of protections for birds ever since. In 2017, the Department of the Interior proposed a drastic reinterpretation of the Act, declaring that only intentional killing of birds would be prohibited. That is, the new position is that incidental deaths could not be prosecuted, even if such deaths could easily have been anticipated and avoided. This would reverse many decades of federal policy, and effectively render the MBTA impotent. It’s not as though the MBTA has been invoked indiscriminately. It has been Barry Brunson, Chair, Climate Change used only 14 times in the last 20 years, “… including 9 federal prosecutions that Committee • March 2020 were against energy industry operations and two that involved the use of pesticides. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, $100 million in fines stemming from the MBTA were directed toward the restoration of damaged habitat.” It’s not too late to file a comment with the US Fish & Wildlife Service! The period is open until 19 Mar 2020, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ufwmcuy See also the 9 Feb article by Gustave Axelson at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at https://tinyurl.com/yxy2jegp for much more fascinating and troubling detail, as well as the source of the quote above.
Once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price. —Ansel Adams Puffin Tool Use Various bird species are known to use tools, notably corvids and the Woodpecker Finch, but also certain warblers and a few others. However, the Atlantic Puffin is the first seabird to have been observed—and recorded—using a tool. In 2014, Oxford ecologist Annette Fayet made notes about seeing such a puffin, off the coast of Wales, use a stick, apparently to scratch its back. Four years later, a motion-sensitive video camera, deployed by Dr Fayet, recorded such a puffin using a stick to scratch its chest feathers—on Grimsey Island in Iceland. With the photographic evidence, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published Dr Fayet’s paper. See the 1 Feb 2020 Science News article by Jonathan Lambert at https://tinyurl.com/suj6sgf, which includes a short video and links to the PNAS article (the online version carries a 30 Dec 2019 date).
6 The Hooter • March 2020 • Kittitas Audubon’s Newsletter Kittitas Audubon Society MEMBERSHIP FORM
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GIVE THE GIFT OF KITTITAS AUDUBON! INTERESTED IN BIRD BOXES? Please send gift recipient’s name, address, email, and phone to address below. Hand-crafted Bluebird, Kestrel, and Barn Owl Boxes by Tom Gauron Please make checks payable to: Kittitas Audubon Society Please contact PO Box 1443 Tom at 509.968.3175 Ellensburg WA 98926 for more information. THANK YOU! kittitas audubon • www.kittitasaudubon.org 77 PO Box 1443 Ellensburg, WA 98926
THURSDAY PROGRAM March 19th 7:00pm
March 2020 Kittitas Audubon Hooter
Mark Your Calendars! Board Meeting: March 5th • 4:30pm • United Methodist Church First Saturday BirdWalk: March 7th • 8:00am • Irene Rinehart Park Guided by Steve and Jan THANK YOU! KITTITAS COUNTY BUSINESS Thursday Program: SUPPORTING KAS! March 19th • 7:00pm • Hal Holmes Inland Internet • Roslyn Guest speaker, Ashlee Mikkelsen, will be discussing Donates Internet service for our website: www.kittitasaudubon.org the long history of the Northern Spotted Owl. Old Mill Country Store • Ellensburg Sandhill Crane Festival Provides a discount on bird seed to KAS members. March 20-22, 2020 • Othello, WA www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org/