Summer 2026
WOS Election Results
The membership elected a new board. Dennis Paulson (President), Jon Isacoff (Vice President), Dick Holcomb (Treasurer), and Jon Houghton (Secretary) continue as officers. Three new board members, Jim Jordan, De’Quan Flight-Roberson, and Joe Cooney, join Raphael Fennimore and Doug Santoni. Members also passed three bylaw changes, with details on the 2026 WOS election page.
A Tribute to Jane Hadley
By Thomas Bancroft
The Board thanks Jane Hadley for eight years as WOS webmaster. With her husband Randy, she helped create and manage three websites. She migrated and redesigned wos.org, brought the Birder’s Guide to Washington online, and helped maintain Birder’s Dashboard, which uses eBird data. Before stepping down, she trained her successor, Savannah Truluck.
Donating Binoculars
By Samara Hoag
Hoag encourages birders to bring small gifts or spare optics on trips abroad for local guides and conservation staff, who often lack binoculars. The recipients are usually very grateful and it creates a supportive community within the birding world! Read to learn about her tips on gifting optics
Seattle’s Urban Peregrine Falcons
By Patti Loesche & Ed Deal
Peregrines vanished from much of the U.S. by the 1960s because of pesticides like DDT. They recolonized Seattle, with the first urban nest in 1994 on the Washington Mutual Tower (now Tower 1201). Seattle has used 15 nest sites and typically hosts 4–6 nests a year. Learn more about the risks to populations, tracking of individuals, and the reports from the 2026 season
The Bird Banter Podcast
By Ed Pullen
A seasonal roundup of notable Washington bird records. The cover calls it Mar–May 2025, which looks like a typo in a Summer ‘26 issue. Highlights:
- A rare Dusky x Sooty Grouse hybrid, the third record.
- Two “Tule” Greater White-fronted Geese in Walla Walla.
- A record six Hudsonian Whimbrels in Grant County.
- The state’s 38th Ovenbird.
- A Little Gull in Grays Harbor, the county’s second record.
- A Pileated Woodpecker in Franklin County, a first for the county.
- Great-tailed Grackles, bringing the state total to 20.