The Spring 2026 WOSNews has sprung!

The 2026 Spring issue of the WOS newsletter begins with a recap of the successful WOS Hells Gate Annual Conference in Lewiston, Idaho by WOS Vice President Jon Isacoff, who organized field trips for the conference. The issue also describes a rare and rich type of wetland in eastern Okanogan County that produces a great abundance and diversity of birds. Steve Hampton, Andy Bankert and Alex Sowers tell us how a individual Asian Great Egret subspecies ended up on the Skagit River this spring. Bill Shelmerdine describes seeing what turned out to be the first-ever documented adult female Rufous x Anna’s hummingbird outside his kitchen window. And there is much, much more.

Check out the latest WOSNews: Issue #206..

The WOS “Hells Gate” Annual Conference

The 2026 WOS Annual Conference held May 14-17, 2026 in Lewiston, Idaho has concluded — and was a big success, we hear. But it’s not too late to buy conference shirts at https://bonfire.com/wos-2026-hells-gate-conference.

 State Checklist Continues to Grow

The Washington Bird Records Committee (WBRC) met May 7, 2026 for its spring meeting, accepting 34 valid new records of sightings and not accepting 12. Among the accepted reports were two species never before recorded in this state. One was a Yellow-green Vireo first seen on October 15, 2025 at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge by Bob Boekelheide and subsequently by others. The second was a Cave Swallow seen first on March 28, 2026 by Liam Hutcheson at the Hoquiam Sewage Treatment Plant, also in Grays Harbor County. The state checklist now sits at 531 species. Other review species reported to the committee included Common Crane, Little Gull, Vega Gull, White-winged Dove, Red-footed Booby, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. For more information, check out the committee’s full report for Spring 2026.

WOS Monthly Meetings

Our Monthly Meetings are held on the first Monday of the month, October through June, with the meeting in June being “Members’ Photo Night.”  Since 2020, the vast majority of our Monthly Meetings are conducted via Zoom (no in-person attendance).  Once a year, in the Spring, we hold a combined in-person and virtual meeting at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture.  Monthly Meetings are open to all, as WOS invites everyone in the wider birding community to attend! 

Thanks to the generosity of our presenters, recordings of nearly all past programs are available on the WOS YouTube Channel

Go to WOS’s Monthly Meeting page for information on the upcoming program, and instructions on participating via Zoom.  If you are a member of WOS, this information is sent directly to you each month.