From the Contact Station February 2022

Christmas Bird Count on the Refuge

Doing the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on the refuge can be lots of fun but it does have its challenges.  This year we waited until January 2^nd to do the count with fingers crossed.  The refuge is a big part of the Sauvie Island Circle, which has been active since the 1960s.  It includes areas south to Vancouver Lake and north to the Lewis River on the Washington side and all of Sauvie Island and Scappoose wetlands in Oregon.  Since we plan around hunt days on both sides of the Columbia River, it didn’t leave us with many choices, we had one possibility. The River S was closed for most of the week prior to our Sunday count.  Snow had piled up on the entrance road approach to the bridge and turned to ice with the very cold nights.  But there was just enough thawing the Friday and Saturday before, so a careful entrance would get everyone onto the southern part of the Refuge safely.

We had nine teams covering all sections of the Refuge.  Under very specific circumstances, including special Covid rules this year, we are allowed onto the refuge outside of visitor hours and into the closed sections.  Everyone must sign a volunteer agreement and follow the rules.  Eighteen intrepid birders came in early dressed for the temperatures starting just below freezing.  Luckily it was a relatively calm day, though overcast.  Rains held off for the most part until late in the day when counters were finishing up.  Teams moved around the refuge in cars or walked, covering 15.7 miles on foot and 37 miles by car. A couple teams braved the very cold morning to listen and search for owls.  All together, they delivered 84 volunteer hours for the count.

So, what did we see?  Let’s start with the big birds.  There were 73 sightings of Bald Eagles on the refuge.  That doesn’t mean we have 73 individuals on the refuge though; many of them were moving around quite a bit. To narrow it down to something more realistic, counters are asked to keep track of adults and subadults and to document movement in and out of their count territory with time and direction.  That gets us down to somewhere south of 45 individuals.  But January 2^nd was an interesting day for eagles as many were counted while perched in trees overlooking partly frozen ponds. Since overnight temperatures were in the 20s, many of the shallow ponds were frozen or had limited open water and this is just like serving breakfast at the table for hungry eagles.  Waterfowl was bunched up wherever they could find open water.  We also had a young Peregrine Falcon hunting Bachelor Island seen by two teams.

Cranes were scattered around the refuge and many teams saw them flying over as the day progressed.  We try to count them on the ground only.  If the teams are out early enough and in the right place, they can catch them before or as they leave their night roost to get a good estimate of their numbers.  We counted 1250 on the refuge with our biggest group of 900 on Bachelor Island. In mid-October, we had our annual Sandhill Crane count when we count cranes coming into roost at night. There were 5103 cranes in the greater area which includes Sauvie Island, Vancouver Lake Bottoms and Port, the Refuge and private lands up to the Lewis River. That number is expected to be higher than the CBC as some of the birds are migrants still working their way south in October.  The CBC numbers for the circle are still being reviewed, but it looks like at least 4000 for the whole circle.

Our goose populations are holding their own.  Last year we had 16,489 combined Canada and Cackling Geese.  This year it was slightly down at 13,269.  But we increase our Greater White-fronted Geese by 50% going from 2 to 3.  Snow Geese are abundant in the region, but not on the refuge.  We are lucky to get a stray one hiding in a Cackling Goose flock periodically.  Although the circle count is over 12,000, we only picked up 50 on Bachelor Island.  By contrast, out refuge is very attractive to swans with the biggest numbers being seen on the refuge. The refuge had 535 of 600 total Trumpeters for the circle and 1658 of 2531 Tundras.  Ducks had a good showing this year too.  Weather might have had something to do with that as so few ponds were open and they were huddled together in tight groups making them easier to count.  Mallards were the winners in the refuge duck category with almost three times last years number at 2926 counted.  Northern Pintails had a good showing at 2136, almost double last year.  Hardly a trip around the auto tour goes by that I don’t see a Pied-billed Grebe, yet this year people have noted they are hard to find.  The CBC on the refuge supports that notion with only 11 counted this year; last year we had 48.  Effects of the long hot summer?  We were down to very little water anywhere until the deluge after all.

Sadly, we only found three Barn Owls this year compared to

nine last year.  One wonders if the stress of the summer heat followed by very dry conditions might have taken a toll on this year’s nestlings.  There were six Great Horned Owls heard, but none on the River S auto tour. Short-eared Owls are still on Bachelor Island but don’t appear to be hanging out on River S so far this year.

For the small songbirds, Golden-crowned Sparrow took the prize for best numbers at 414.  That’s not a big surprise as most of the small birds on the roadsides are flocks of Golden-crowned Sparrows.  It is always worth looking at all of them because you can never know when you might find a Lincoln’s or even a Harris’ Sparrow among the mix.  Naturally, Song Sparrows were also abundant with 312 counted.  Otherwise, there was a smattering of the usual suspects around, but no big surprises this year.

Water is high around the refuge.  With the end of January break in atmospheric rivers, there are a lot of visitors making the rounds.  Enjoy the sun breaks and our winter birds when you can.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer