Bird Laughs
As nature enthusiasts, I'm sure many of us were fans of Gary Larson's Far Side comics. In case you hadn't heard, Larson has a new web site featuring daily sets of classic comics and occasional new work. Here's a recent bird-related collection: https://www.thefarside.com/comic-collections/181/odd-ducks-common-loons-oct2020. In these difficult times, this site is a great thing to bookmark in your browser for a daily laugh. (Of course, mask if you laugh in public.) Enjoy!
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Field Trip Report, September 26, 2020
Romancing the Spruce Grouse at Conrad Meadows!
Five Yakima Audubon members and a visitor from Seattle caravanned from the Chesterley Park parking lot to Conrad Meadows in hopes of finding the quiet, boreal Franklin’s Spruce Grouse. Arriving at the parking area of the meadows we found it to be a balmy 39º with gray threatening skies, which probably would have been a downer if not for the welcome we received from the local Canada jays that immediately flew in to see if we had any food for them.
We headed down the trail, running into an assortment of birds along the way, most of them flitting about and making it difficult to get a good look at them. After searching for the grouse for several hours and not seeing any sign, we had worked our way to the edge of Conrad Meadows where, while taking a five minute lunch break, we discussed our next move. It was decided that we would back track to the cars going through the better grouse habitat that we had already searched. Good decision!!!
If you're fortunate enough to find a spruce grouse, you're likely to get a very good look at it. There’s a reason for their nickname “fool hen”: it’s their total lack of fear of humans. We found this to be true. As we worked our way back along the trail we came across a beautiful male spruce grouse not more than ten feet away, and the biggest surprise was that he was displaying and strutting in front of a hen as if it were the height of the breeding season. This turned out to be a life bird for three of the lucky birders, and by the time the excitement was over we had spotted one male, three hens, and five immature birds. It was noted that some of the young were feeding on kinnikinnick berries (also known as bearberry) that spread along the side of the trail. That’s the most spruce grouse I have ever seen at one time. Then, as a bonus, we spotted a sooty grouse hen standing on a log across the road from the spruce grouse covey, nervously watching all the action.
We ended with 27 species, and I think I speak for all who were there that this was an outstanding and very rewarding trip.
— Kerry Turley
Bird list
Spruce Grouse (Franklin's) 9 Red-breasted Nuthatch 6
Sooty Grouse 1 Brown Creeper 1
Hairy Woodpecker 3 Varied Thrush 1
Northern Flicker 2 Hermit Thrush 2
Merlin 2 American Robin 4
Dusky Flycatcher 1 Evening Grosbeak 2
Canada Jay 7 Pine Grosbeak 1
Steller's Jay 2 Pine Siskin 35
Clark's Nutcracker 3 Fox Sparrow 1
Common Raven 3 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 13
Mountain Chickadee 4 White-crowned Sparrow 1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1 Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 10 Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Top: Male spruce grouse struts his stuff at Conrad Meadows. Bottom: Male spruce grouse and hen. Photos by Kerry Turley.
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Vredenburgh Bluebird Trail 2020 – Off Year or Downward Trend?
by Richard Repp
This year’s nesting results are in: a total of 467 bluebirds fledged from the Vredenburgh’s nest boxes. The annual fledge totals over the past 35 years average 440 bluebirds. So why suggest that 2020 was an off year?
Twenty-one boxes along Durr Road were added to the trail this year and contributed 41 Mountain Bluebirds to our total. Deducting those would lower production from the core trail’s 132 boxes to 426. The trail’s best year was 2018, when 620 bluebirds fledged. The 2019 season total reflected a more average 446 fledges.
The Vredenburgh has exceeded 500 fledges a total of eight times over the trail’s 39 years and only in consecutive years twice. Weather is the most likely cause of fluctuations. Both cool, wet springs and hot summers will hamper the nesting success. According to an article in the North American Bluebird Society’s most recent magazine, bluebird trail managers across North America this year cited one or both of those weather factors as affecting their trails.
The article also mentioned the decline of insects, nestlings’ primary food, as a factor this year. The writer pondered whether this was merely a combination of wet spring and dry summer conditions or a confirmation of the general loss of insects worldwide.
Locally, monitors Joe and Karen Zook commented that House Wrens were more numerous in boxes this year, establishing nests in thirteen boxes. Equally concerning was the fact that twelve boxes were not used by any avian species this year. When you combine the wren and unused boxes, the total is 25. Had half of those been successful bluebird nests, the yearly fledged total would probably increase by 50.
Looking closer, all but one of the wren nests occurred on the lower half of the trail. All unused boxes were on the upper half. The lower trail habitat has more low growth brush while the upper trail is more open. Wrens favor brushy areas for nesting. Bluebirds return to our area as early as February while wrens arrive much later in April. Bluebirds claim territories and select mates prior to the appearance of wrens.
I am suggesting that the 25 unused or wren boxes were standing vacant when the wrens arrived. Possibly because bluebirds were electing to delay nesting because of weather. Wrens completely fill a nest box with brittle twigs well above the entrance hole; once completed, bluebirds can’t enter a box.
A second possibility could be that fewer bluebirds returned to the area this spring.Are they losing habitat and or food sources on their wintering grounds? Or is the Wenas area habitat becoming less attractive?
Admittedly, I tend to be a pessimist. But as for the Vredenburgh, give me bluebirds in every box or give me…chickadees, swallows, nuthatches, anything but house sparrows, starlings or wrens!
YVAS has added a “Bluebird” tab on our website home page. There you can access the box by box yearly recap as well as a summary table of the trail’s success since its inception plus (eventually) photos and much more. Here is a quick link: yakimaaudubon.org/bluebird.
 Left: A Western Bluebird pair. Right: Mountain Bluebird male feeding young at Box 48. Photos by Karen Zook
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YVAS Officer Candidates for 2021
We will be voting (by Zoom!) on new Board of Directors officers at the YVAS October meeting. Voting will take place at the beginning of the meeting, and your hosts will give instructions for voting by Zoom. The candidates are
- President: Scott Downes. Scott lives in Yakima with his wife and 2 daughters. For work, Scott is a wildlife biologist and studied Sage Thrashers for his master’s at Central Washington University. He has lived in Yakima since 2003 and when not working, can often be found birding, especially with his talented young birder daughter, Sierra.
- Secretary: Sarah Shippen. Sarah moved to the Yakima Valley from the West Side more than 30 years ago and lives with her husband, Gene, in Zillah. She is a relatively new birder, but has discovered through Yakima Audubon many of our local birding hotspots and is having fun improving her skills. Now retired, she wants to help support YVAS in its important community and conservation activities.
We still need a new Treasurer because Karen Zook, our current treasurer, has volunteered to be Richard Repp's apprentice to manage the Bluebird Trail. If you are interested, please email Karen at gadzooks7@charter.net .
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Christmas Bird Counts in the time of COVID-19
COVID-19 has disrupted almost everything in our lives, and the annual Christmas bird counts are no exception. The good news is that they will still happen. The not-as-good news is that they have had to be restructured in the interests of safety. The 2020 Toppenish NWR and Yakima Valley counts this year will be done by just the route leaders and people they have feel safe socializing with. We have added some flexibility to the two counts by allowing the route leaders to do their route on any day they would like in the count period. The count period runs from December 14, 2020 through January 5, 2021. Because of the risk of spreading the virus in group settings, the breakfast get-together and compilation dinners are cancelled.
If you would like to participate this year, please count the birds in your yard or neighborhood. Please make sure that your house is within the Christmas Count circle. The Yakima Valley count map is centered on Sportsman’s State Park. If you live within 7 ½ miles of the park, your house is in the circle. The center of the Toppenish NWR circle is at the intersection of S. Wapato Road and Larue Road, south of Toppenish.
Here is the link to a map showing the locations of all of the Christmas Counts: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=ac275eeb01434cedb1c5dcd0fd3fc7b4 . In the upper left corner, click on the “+” to enlarge the map until you can read some of the city names. Drag the map until Washington is visible and you will be able to find Yakima. The Yakima Valley and Toppenish NWR count circles can be seen just below Yakima on the map. Keep clicking on the “+” to further enlarge the map until you can read the street names in either circle. You can click and hold on the map to drag it to find your neighborhood. If your neighborhood is not in one of the count circles, and you would still like to count, contact the compiler for other ways your participation can contribute to citizen science.
At the end of the day in which you have counted birds, please send your totals to the CBC compiler for the count:
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Wildfires reinforce case for Greater Sage-grouse endangered status
The recent landscape-scale fires in Douglas and Okanogan Counties swept through much habitat critical for both Greater Sage Grouse and Sharp-tailed Grouse. A news release by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) estimate that "recent wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres of Eastern Washington Sage-grouse habitat, adding to the reasons that the department is recommending endangered status for Sage Grouse in Washington through its periodic status review processes."
Prior to the fires, there were an estimated 775 Greater Sage Grouse in Washington, ~ 85 % in Douglas County, the remaining 65 or so on the Yakima Training Center. A tiny number, perhaps less than 10 may be hanging on in a Lincoln County reintroduction site.
WDFW says of its review process: "Such reviews periodically assess the status of protected species and recommend status changes if warranted. The designation change from threatened to endangered would increase current levels of protection to promote the survival of Sage Grouse in the state."
Further, WDFW states "Habitat loss is the single greatest threat to Greater Sage Grouse and is exacerbated by the immediate threat of wildfire. While WDFW staff may not know the full impacts to grouse populations until spring, they estimate that recent wildfires may reduce the number of threatened Greater Sage Grouse by 30 to 70 percent, bringing the statewide population dangerously low."
“The fires have caused a devastating setback to recovery of Sage Grouse populations in eastern Washington,” said Mike Livingston, south central regional director with the agency. “Vast acreages of shrub-steppe habitat just burned, and surviving birds are more vulnerable to predators and winter conditions,” he adds.
Left: Sharp-tailed Grouse in Montana. Photo by Ellen Stepniewski. Right: Greater Sage Grouse. Photo by George Vlahakis.
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Feed the Birds and Support Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society
For the last 19 years, Columbia Grain and Feed has been a huge supporter of the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society (LCBAS). They work to purchase seed in large quantities at this time of year and pass the savings on to you, and then they make a large donation to LCBAS. Unless the bird seed market changes, this sale will have the lowest prices for the year. Buy now for easy storage through the winter!
No order form is needed – just call Columbia Grain & Feed at 509-547-8818 between September 28 and October 31, 2020. Remember: ANY purchase made at Columbia Grain & Feed during the year benefits LCBAS if you mention our name at checkout!
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