Fall 2024
Big bang for the buck from Patrick Sullivan Young Birder Fund Award
By Mason Maron, Pullman
Mason Maron, recipient of a Patrick Sullivan Young Birder’s Fund award, says he would not have been able to complete his research project without the money from the award. Mason first got involved in an ongoing undergraduate research project on Rosy-finches at Washington State University that petered out in the middle of his senior year. He then began to pursue his own personal research on feather lice found on Rough-legged Hawks. “[T]he award supported my efforts, including the hours put in, journal submission fees, and even genetic analysis for the lice,” Mason says. His work is currently pending publication. “It has been educational, helped me gain valuable experience and even opened a few doors for potential graduate school possibilities.” Read more >>>
Check Out WOS’s Growing YouTube Catalog!
WOS’s YouTube channel, which is managed by Elaine Chuang, offers a library of 32 monthly meeting recordings on diverse topics for both experienced birdwatchers and newcomers. Previous presenters have included Dennis Paulson on cormorants, Julia K. Parrish on seabirds and citizen science, Andy Stepniewski on Eastern Washington birding, Tom Good on Caspian Terns in Puget Sound, Nick Bayard on BirdNote, and Martha Jordan on swans and Snow Geese. Read more >>>
Cruising for puffins in Puget Sound — and finding more than one kind
By Thomas Bancroft
Tom Bancroft takes us along on a spectacular Puffin Cruise out of Edmonds to Smith Island. The highlight on this trip was a Horned Puffin, a species only rarely seen in Puget Sound. Tufted Puffins, a member of the same Fratercula genus as Horned, used to nest on over a dozen islands in the Salish Sea, but possibly only a single pair nested on Protection Island in 2024 and a dozen or so on Smith Island. The state added them to the state’s endangered list in 2015. Populations have decreased from over 20,000 birds in the 1970s to under 3,000 by 2010. A combination of reduced prey availability, increased predation rates, and the effects of climate change have contributed to the declines. Read more >>>
Unexpected Encounter: A Chestnut-sided Warbler in Gig Harbor
By Cara Borre, Gig Harbor
On June 8, 2023, out walking with her partner Asta and two dogs on private property in Gig Harbor, Cara Borre first heard a loud warbler song that was not from any usual suspects. As she pursued the song, she recognized the “pleased, pleased, pleased to meetcha” mnemonic for a Chesnut-sided Warbler song and soon located the bird high in an alder. With two dogs, no binoculars and no camera, Cara and Asta were not well-positioned to document the sighting. Cara used the Merlin app on her iPhone to record the song. And the warbler helped as best it could by suddenly appearing low in bushes nearby. Cara used her iPhone to snap pictures that were clear enough evidence of the bird’s identity, She quickly submitted the sighting with picture to eBird. Five days later, a skilled birder contacted her to say there were both a male and female Chestnut-sided Warbler. Cara and Asta subsequently observed the female gathering nesting material and the male singing — evidence of breeding. Read more >>>
Celebrity bird: A Red-footed Booby sets up shop in Port Townsend
By Scott White, Bellingham
A tropical bird setting spending the summer in Washington State? The sightings began on July 31st when Colleen Farrell, a biologist with Puget Sound Express, spotted the bird just offshore from the Dungeness Spit. It wasn’t long before the Booby moved closer to Port Townsend. The bird spent several days around Port Wilson before settling in at Fort Worden State Park on August 4th. From then on, it became something of a local celebrity, though visitors streamed in from afar also. This was only the fourth recorded sighting of a Red-footed Booby in Washington, and only the second time a live bird had been spotted in the state. The first documented sighting had been in 2018. Read more>>>
Washington Field Notes: June – July 2021
By Ryan Merrill, Seattle
A Blue-winged x Cinnamon Teal was in Clark County in early June 2021. The state’s second Purple Gallinule was photographed along the downtown Seattle waterfront in mid-July. A Costa’s Hummingbird was seen in Kittitas County in June, the state’s 16th record. White-rumped Sandpipers in Snohomish and Clark in early June were the state’s 10th and 11th records. A Northern Parula, rare in Washington, was seen at the Dosewallips River in Jefferson County on June 1. Read more>>>