Field Trip and Event Reports

By Deb Nickerson March 1st dawned dry and chilly but filled with anticipation by those involved with organizing our chapter’s Annual Dinner, an affair that brings together our members for a catered dinner, reflections and featured presentation by a renowned professional in the field of bird conservation or study. What an evening it was! Photo of Betsy Norton, by Quentin Phillips.      ...

2024 OLYMPIA CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT RESULTS By Bill Shelmerdine, Compiler The 2024 Olympia Christmas Bird Count was held Sunday December 15th.  Weather was cooperative, mild with the rain holding off through the daylight hours. The number of participants reached a new high this year, with 112 observers recording 130 species for the day.  This is above the long-term average of between 126 and 127 species. ...

2024 Lewis County Christmas Bird Count Results By Rachel Hudson, Compiler On December 21st, 40 participants across 23 groups/singles of both field birders and feeder-watchers joined together to contribute to Lewis County’s eighth Christmas Bird Count. Despite the strangely warm, shower-y weather and many groups feeling rather birdless this year, we had our second-best year ever for total species, third...

Black Hills Audubon has completed the installation of a Motus tower in Hoodsport.  A Motus tower has a set of antennas that can pick up signals emitted from geo-locator tags that have been attached to birds, bats and bugs.  The BHAS tower is part of a shorebird migration project sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Department under the supervision of Vanessa Loverti.  It is sitting...

Lewis County Christmas Bird Count 2024—Thank You! With an uncertain weather forecast and an unknown number of hidden birds to search for, more than 29 intrepid field birders and 4 dedicated feeder watchers worked hard on Saturday December 21st to carefully document every single bird they encountered here in our Lewis County Count Circle. Some teams had challenging weather, with rain showers and steady...

Led by Lin Stern and Kameron Lantor, a group of teens enjoyed a morning of birding at Billy Frank, Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in November.  This was organized by Grant Connor, a student at Olympia High School, as a community service project.  The weather was perfect and the birds were cooperative.  The highlight conclusion was a Short-eared Owl seen from the dike before the...

OLYMPIA CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT 2024—THANK YOU Although we don’t yet have the results of the two Black Hills Audubon Christmas Bird Counts that occurred in December, we are filled with memories and appreciation of those who did the work to make this a success.  Above is Jen DeSelle’s NE Olympia team at a local bakery before heading out, in the rain, to count all the birds seen and heard.  All...

BHAS Hosted ACOW this Year Kim Adelson               Every year, Audubon chapter leaders from across the state come together in an event called “ACOW”, which stands for Audubon Council of Washington. It typically takes place on a Saturday and is preceded on Friday by WSACC, the Washington State Audubon Conservation Committee.  We...

A Forkful of Change By Rachel Hudson I stared at it once more. It was still there, unmoving, innocuous enough. I had just overcome one of the longest days of my life, so filled with ups and downs and traveling and changes and disappointments and luck… And my body, now very starved for calories, was reminding me of its needs. The berry pancakes I’d eaten simply weren’t enough. Maybe I could just try...

OUTREACH COMMITTEE REPORT BHAS OCTOBER 3, 2024 During August and September, we participated in two events:  Eco-Fair on August 17th at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Olympia and the Nisqually Watershed Festival in Lacey on September 28th.  We had five BHAS volunteers at these events with approximately 100-150 visitors at each event.  It was a good way to share avian...