From the Contact Station September 2022

Summer to Fall Changes

It seems like every day I have been scheduled to staff the Contact Station this summer it has been a high 90s day. Fortunately, most of those days had a nice breeze from the northwest making it tolerable, and many times delightful, until one or two in the afternoon that is. Many of us have taken up our duties sitting out on the porch. All the better to greet visitors while staying cooler. We also have had a lot of help this last month while our new volunteers are doing shadow assignments with the long-time volunteers. You will see new faces as Brent, Carl, Barb and David join us in the coming months. We are so happy to have them with us to be able to extend the hours we are there to greet visitors and answer questions. New trail walkers will be coming on board too covering the Kiwa trail, when it is open, and the Carty unit trails. We are not up to seven days a week coverage of the station and trails yet, but it is a long-term goal. A few of them will be around to help with Birdfest activities on October 1. The popular crane tour is being offered both Saturday and Sunday, Oct 1-2, again. If you are interested in participating, you must register early on the Friends Website as they sell out quickly. Details are in other parts of this e-news.

Both wildlife and visitors have been a bit thin over the last month. But things started to pick up in mid-August. We had just enough puddle area left in Swartz Lake to attract some of the first south bound shorebird migrants. Swartz Lake is at the bottom of the auto tour, right of the road at #12.5ish to #13. It is now dry but it was good to get a look at Least, Pectoral, and Solitary Sandpipers on their southern migration. In addition to the sandpipers, we had a lot of swallows overhead. Among them was the not often seen Bank Swallow. It was my first sighting on the refuge for this species so I was well pleased. There’s a Species Spotlight article on Bank Swallows in this e-news.

There seems to be a changing of species at the contact station feeder too. The blackbirds were dominating the scene most of the last month or so. Red-winged, Brewer’s and Yellow-headed were almost always present. Only the sassy Scrub Jay could push them out.  Now that they have flocked up to (mostly) migrate, there are less of them. The smaller songbirds are coming in now. Among the visitors at the quieter feeder was a recent lovely White-breasted Nuthatch. They have been around all summer, just not frequenting the feeder because of the competition.

September is the month to look for new species coming through on migration or settling in for winter feeding grounds. We should see a lot of waterfowl, swans, and cranes near the end of the month. Where they are found will be dependent on rain starting to fill the ponds or the pumping of water into the refuge if the Columbia River is high enough. Fingers crossed. One bonus of low water is mosquitos are significantly reduced. The temperatures are becoming a little more tolerable through the day, so walking is more pleasant. As always, the last day to walk the River S, including the Kiwa Trail, is September 30^th. However, Birdfest is on October 1^st this year so walking will be allowed that day too!

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer
image: White-breasted Nuthatch coming down cottonwood trunk heading toward feeder. Photo by Pat Snyder