From the Contact Station February 2020

Meet Robert and Audubon Christmas Count Results

Many of you who continue to visit the Refuge during the bridge construction have undoubtedly met our new volunteer, Robert Vanderkamp.  He has been alternating Saturday mornings with Terri at the contact station.  Robert is a long-time visitor to the Refuge, though he moved here only a short time ago from Michigan to be closer to family.  In Michigan, he worked as a property manager in the City of Holland, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  For seventeen years, he was the president of their local Audubon Chapter where he led many bird walks.  He has been watching birds for most of his adult life but began to get serious about it around ten years ago and upped his game with participation in Cornell’s e-bird program about five years.  His motto is “care and share”.  And he does.  He loves talking to people about the birds.  During last summer, he was doing an early walk on the Kiwa, often stopping to talk to people about the birds they were seeing.  This fall, he started a Saturday morning bird walk on the Carty Unit when he wasn’t at the Contact Station.  He will continue to do the second Saturday of each month bird walks at 8 am this winter on the Oaks to Wetlands Trail.  You can see the posting in the display case at the River S or check the Friends and Refuge websites for more information.  More will be coming in spring and summer as we get back to a more normal schedule and the trails open.

Robert loves the competition for top birder on e-bird and finds it very stimulating.  As I write, he is #2 in Clark County for a good start on 2020 having sighted 87 species for the first half of January.  Besides our weekly bird list on the Friends website, you can follow Robert on e-bird as he will post there for every visit.  He also loves to hike.  Moving to Washington has brought him new hiking experiences with the mountains and ocean being so close.  He is loving it.  His bird life list will grow with these great Washington habitats to explore.  Do stop to visit Robert, he loves to answer bird questions.

120^th Christmas Bird Count:  One of the most pleasing aspects of this year’s Christmas Bird Count was the weather.  It got up to 44°and there was no rain.  But since there hadn’t been much rain by the December 15^th count, many of our ponds and streams were very low.  The whole circle (which includes Sauvie Island, RNWR, Vancouver Lake Bottoms, some private property to the Lewis River and circles just below the Ilani to head south just on the east side of I-5) had a 16% reduction of individual birds counted from the last two years.  That matched the feeling the refuge bird teams had while doing the survey.  The Refuge allowed the teams early access to help listen for owls; we were able to bird from 6 am to 6 pm.  Still, the Great Horned Owl numbers were not big.  We had three calling on the River S and 6 more in the closed parts of the Refuge.  Two Short-eared Owls were found, one on the River S, so keep an eye out for them.  Sadly, no one reported a Barn Owl anywhere.

Seems Black Phoebes are sticking around with two found on the refuge and they have been seen in January too.  Our most numerous bird species was the…. wait for it…. Cackling Goose (5938 counted).  No surprise there.  Sandhill Cranes numbered 285, with the biggest group being in the south part of the refuge where the night roost is.  Only three were on the River S.  A larger flock was down at Vancouver Lake Bottoms, but they can be found in varying numbers up to the Lewis River.  One counter on the Lewis River had a sizable flyover at dusk coming from Woodland Bottoms toward the Refuge, probably heading to the night roost.  We had over 1700 swans counted, always a visitor favorite in winter. A little over 90% were identified as Tundra Swans vs Trumpeters.  With the increased water levels due to January rain, we are seeing more of them in Rest Lake now.  Most duck species were represented but not in big numbers.  We counted 1960 Northern Pintail as the most numerous duck. We had 150 Bald Eagles for the entire circle (OR and WA) with 25 of them on the Refuge.  That is a new high for Bald Eagle on this Christmas count.  If you have been on the River S this month you have probably seen the eagles pairing up.  They are flying together and having rather long eagle conversations as they sit on the ground and next to each other in trees.  There have been a lot of young eagles too.  They generally fly around and harass other eagles and waterfowl.  Covering the entire refuge with six teams, we had 90 species for the day and counted 17620 individuals on the Refuge alone.  A nice bit of citizen science contributing to the data about the state of birds.  Below is the list of birds seen on the Refuge.

For more information about Christmas Bird Counts, check out the National Audubon website.  We are part of the ORSI (Oregon, Sauvie Island) circle, a two-state 25-mile diameter circle.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer