By Deb Nickerson, Bill Shelmerdine, and Kathleen Synder
Thurston County:
December 15th dawned dry and cold but lacking inclement weather that makes 8 hours of identifying and counting birds arduous. Fog obscured visibility on the west side of Thurston County for several hours but did not prevent teams there from pointing their optics on all they could view. Under the direction of Bill Shelmerdine, our chapter had 107 volunteer observers (a new record for us) counting 126 species of birds on this year’s Christmas Bird Count. This is right about the 10-year and 30-year average of 126.5 species. The total number of individual birds seen were 36,800. Highlights for the count included Red-shouldered Hawk; Yellow-billed Loon; Eastern Phoebe (First for the CBC and first sighting for the county); Black Phoebe; and Lesser Goldfinch. Notable misses were Virginia Rail and Cedar Waxwing.
Two skippers from the Olympia Yacht Club, Eric Hurlburt aboard Patina and Pam and Rick Panowicz aboard Jean Marie welcomed birders aboard and volunteered their day to enable us to spot birds we could not see from shore.
Diane Coulter again organized a delicious Chili Feed which followed the count, this year held at the Olympia Yacht Club. A team of cooks and prep workers spent hours of their weekend behind stoves and counters doing their part in supporting this annual monitoring program. The OYC Environmental Awareness Committee provided the Clubhouse and their afternoon so we could hold the compilation downtown in a centralized location. The hall met our needs beautifully and the additional help of the committee members streamlined the work.
Lewis County:
Under the direction of Dave Hayden and Dalton Spencer, this 3rd count had the pleasure (?) of birding in a deluge. Over four inches of rain fell on 38 of us on December 20th, along with some umbrella-shredding winds. This brought thousands of ducks to the flooded agricultural fields but passerines were hard to come by. Nevertheless, 92 species were counted that day plus 5 additional were seen during the count week. Total number of birds was 16,324 so far; a couple of reports haven’t been submitted yet. We did have some great finds – Sandhill Crane, Rough-legged Hawk, Short-eared Owl, Black-headed Grosbeak and Black Phoebe.
Our compilation dinner was warm and dry and held at Fire Station #6 in Chehalis. Thoroughly soaked participants enjoyed homemade soup and dessert provided by a super group of volunteers. Also notable were the feeder watch counters. Last year we had four; this year we had thirteen! Since this is a fairly new event, bringing in more participants will ensure future success.
In its 110th year, Audubon’s CBC is the longest-running citizen monitoring project in the country. We are proud to support this work and use the data for our own knowledge of bird populations in the South Sound. It is only because of the many local volunteers though, that we are able to carry on this effort; we are indebted to each of you for giving your time and talents each year. Thank you all so much!
