Doing four counties in one year was naturally a mistreatment of all four counties. Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania, and Wahkiakum all had more interesting stops and more interesting birds than I was able to find and show through the blog many a year ago.
And in terms of goals, all four of them were short of my long-term goal to see 175 species in all four counties. Seeing that the Christmas Bird Counts in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum County would line up on the 28th and 29th of December gave me my first real chance to being The Apology Tour through Southwestern Washington.
On the 28th, I met up with Russ Koppendrayer around noon in Longview at the 7th Avenue Park. I had been hosting karaoke the night before and got out as soon as I could muster. Russ had been birding the southeasternish parts of Longview. I met him at a park, and promptly started walking with him, chatting about the past year, new birds, old friends, etc. We almost immediately got interrupted by a Townsend's Warbler. They're a bird that hangs around in the winters in small numbers. A nice splash of yellow in the midst of all the black, white, and brown birds!
Great views of the bird, and it's always nice to connect chip notes to visuals.
The birds at the park were otherwise pretty common - Rock Pigeons, Starlings, Song Sparrows, Canada and Cackling Geese. Off we went to other stops in the area! Most of these were not exactly hotspots! A bit of trail along the river behind apartments. A wooded patch next to a gate at an industrial area. But we found some good birds, nonetheless. Some highlights included a dozen Barn Swallows (rare in winter), and a Red-shouldered Hawk. We often came across large numbers of doves, including Mourning and Eurasian Collared-Doves. With these birds, a Peregrine Falcon would have been a not-unexpected bird, but I was not able to get that one added to my life list in the Cowlitz.
We did find other falcons! American Kestrels, and a Merlin. I also seemed to have a knack for finding Cooper's Hawks during the day, usually perched midway up bare deciduous trees.
I eventually got a little weary and wanted to check in at the hotel before heading out to the count dinner. Naturally, Russ found not one but two Peregrine Falcons after I left him!
The count dinner was at the Salty Beaver in Longview. Stuffy's, the usual haunt for the count, had suffered a kitchen fire recently and was not yet reopened. At the count itself, we got talking about missing birds, which included Great Horned Owl. Some people mentioned that they'd heard them recently in their neighborhood, so I made a plan to get out to the Beacon Hill neighborhood and try for them.
Success! Great Horned Owl - my 168th species in Cowlitz. It felt nice to move the needle at least a little bit towards 175! Additionally, it was nice to clear out a Code 1 bird. The only one remaining is Bullock's Oriole! I also tallied a Barred Owl during the search - all in an hour of driving the neighborhood. It was a pretty, quiet evening. Many homes still had Christmas lights up, but there were occasionally little stretches lined with trees, letting me feel a little more comfortable being out on the roadside! I was able to get back to the hotel and get a GOOD night's sleep.
Wahkiakum CBC 12/29
When I initially reached out to Andrew Emlen, he asked if I was okay taking an area in Oregon. Believe it or not, I didn't give a firm "No"! Although I think that the implied duress of simply being in Oregon... where I, as a running joke, refuse to count birds (until we make Oregon the 40th county in Washington! Or actually, maybe I'll count them after I'm "done" birding in Washington?). In the end, I landed a sliver of Wahkiakum County - from Cathlamet east to Nassa Point on the Columbia, and Northeast to the Fish Hatchery on Beaver Creek.
Early to bed, early to rise! I got out and found myself with time to try for owls in the morning. Fern Hill Road... nothing. Greenwood Road... yahtzee! At nearly the end of the road, I tried for Northern Saw-whet Owl. My whistling got a "skiew!" response, and then some singing from a NSWO. Behind me, a Great Horned Owl additionally gave a few calls.
This left me kind of content, and I thought I'd slip outside of the circle to try for a species that I needed for my Wahkiakum list - Northern Pygmy-Owl. I drove up to the hatchery, and continued on Beaver Creek Road, gaining in elevation and hitting habitat where there have been sightings over the years. It was neat to see frost on the grass on the side of the road as I continued onward and upward. I tried at several spots, napped at several spots, and eventually returned to the hatchery empty handed.
I got to the Beaver Creek Fish Hatchery slightly before 6 A.M. The front gate was open, so I started in. . . and saw a note "No Fisher Parking". I stared at it, sipped on my coffee, and tried to sort out what this meant for me. Parked in a lot near the entrance, I dozed off pondering this question. 10 minutes later, I woke up, pretty refreshed (I swear it's type 2 narcolepsy. . .), and I saw a woman near a vehicle at one of the hatchery buildings.
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| Blurry Belted Kingfisher. I'm always unhappy with out of focus images, but I was happy with the color contrast here. |
Letting her know that I was with the CBC got me off to a good start. We chatted a little, and she offered to let me walk the grounds, offering a life preserver - apparently a necessary accessory if one is within falling-in distance of water on hatchery grounds. I passed and promised to steer clear! The grounds were a pretty productive start, giving me Fox and Song Sparrows, Eurasian Starlings, and several species of ducks on the little retention pond. I viewed a number of people on the river, with boats and/or boots to take advantage of the good fishing. A Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher rounded things out.
Leaving the hatchery, I went back down Elochoman Valley Road, picking up Red-tailed Hawk (the only one of the day for me!), as well as crows and ravens. I was scanning intently for Merlins - probably my best bet for a new bird during the day. But it was surprisingly raptor-free!
Continuing a little bit further down the road, I pulled over at the intersection with a small road that appeared to lead to another fishing hole. There was wide-parking on the side, and I kind of hit a jackpot. As I scanned the ferns on the nearby embankment, it seemed like every other fern had a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, hopping around from frond to frond, occasionally hovering underneath them. I also picked up another Townsend's Warbler - not my last for the trip! Chickadees (mostly Chestnut-backed through the day) and Downy Woodpecker... and then a fun find - Black Phoebe! It gave its loud chip note repeatedly as it hunted at the edge of the river.
Further down, pulloffs became less practical, although one stop gave me 99 percent of the American Robins I would get for the day. 40ish of these thrushes were chatting it up on a muddy driveway in front of a farm. I eventually landed back on Hwy 4 in Cathlamet. Time to look at the Marina!
The Elochoman Marina gave me two Mallards. This was my grand total for Mallards for the day! Another Great Blue Heron, another Belted Kingfisher, and a single Glaucous-winged Gull. I saw another gull later, the same one? But the marina was largely free of gulls that morning. Buffleheads, Common Mergansers, and scaup (both greater and lesser) were the theme for the day along the water. Outside of the ducks, there were some Double-crested Cormorants, but no grebes, no loons. Relatively quiet!
Walking along the water brings you to a little boardwalk over Birnie Creek, where it empties into the Columbia. I passed a couple of Killdeer, and then started picking up some sparrows in the blackberries. Golden-crowned, Song, Fox, Spotted Towhee, and Dark-eyed Juncos. There was even a smattering of House Finches (my only finches for the day) and some House Sparrows.
On my way out of the Marina, I tried to relocate a pile of zonotrichia sparrows I'd seen back in 2023, figuring they were associated with some feeder, but the streets were pretty quiet. I continued winding through town, and eventually popped out on Ocean Beach Highway again, this time right in front of the high school.
Wahkiakum HS has a bit of land on the North side of the Highway, with some good bird habitat and a very walkable trail. I had high counts of Fox Sparrows here, and more Ruby-crowned Kinglets (along with my first Golden-crowned Kinglets of the day). At the far end of the trail, I got my only Varied Thrushes of the day - four of them coming in to my Northern Pygmy-Owl toots. Owl-wise, it was pretty exciting to hear what I thought might be a Barred Owl. One more listen... and confirmed. This was 1000 percent a Barred Owl. Then I heard what I thought might be a dog barking... and then confirmed, yes. This was just a dog barking. I counted neither the owl, nor the dog, in the end. Steller's Jays were pretty thick here too.
I was surprised, by the end of the day, that I had seen or heard no Red-breasted Nuthatches. I was told at the dinner not to be surprised! This and Brown Creeper were missed despite a lot of wooded habitat.
Just a half-step down the road was the Skyline Golf and Disc Golf Course. I'd been unable to confirm that it was okay to walk the grounds. So. . . I walked the grounds in search of someone to ask! I did not find a soul, but I did find... Bushtits! Maybe the only ones for the count? Another Townsend's Warbler! and a clump of Northern Flickers.
Satisfied, I hit the Columbia.
Nassa Point looks out at Puget Island, and there is a small pulloff in advance of the point (spellcheck... why are you unhappy with pulloff? I'm not making it two words, and hyphenating it feels odd. Gonna have to deal with that word. And "Gonna".) From the pulloff, I was able to scope the river, picking up many more of the same birds - mergansers, Buffleheads, and so many Scaup. . . but nothing too exciting or new for the day.
In this general area, I came across a little trail on Hancock Properties. This is a timber company that has some gated roads open for public foot access. The only real condition is that people accept all risks. Sounded good to me! The trail took me high enough and far enough back that the traffic noise from HWY 4 became negligible. I could peer out through hemlock and fir to see the Columbia sparkling in the afternoon sun. Pacific Wren seemed to be the species happiest with the fern-covered ground. Golden-crowned Kinglets were a close second, up above in the canopy.
A trip up Greenwood Road on the way back (where I picked up dozens of Golden-crowned Sparrows at the cemetery, and my only Eurasian Collared-Dove of the day), and then I got myself a room at the Cathlamet Inn. For some reason, they hadn't popped up on Google Maps, so I assumed they might be closed. But they had a room available, which I grabbed. I figured if I was already down here... I should try to follow up on some of the sightings from the count.
The Spar in Cathlamet. . . goodness, if you're in town make the stop. Many people grabbed the clam chowder. I've had it before. It's great. They have a wide range of local taps. The food has always been great. I got the mac and cheese - an easy decision once I saw that crawfish were an optional add-in! We checked in a bit, talking about some of the birds we'd found. We did not do the callouts - one of my favorite parts of any CBC!
If you haven't attended one, here's the gist of it: The compiler starts at the top of the taxonomic list, calling things out, species by species. If a given area saw that species, they call out with a "yes!". It always leads to some surprises - maybe in the form of an unexpected Yes, or in the form of silence for an expected species. The rationale for not doing it? Not all count groups were present... but... I don't think I have ever in life been to a CBC where all count groups were present! :D
There are invariably some species that none of the groups call out, but in some cases, it's possible to make some guesses. No Western Grebes? And the count group that was absent was up in the mountains? Probably none for the count this year. In other cases, we might speculate that a species is usually found in an area that is absent in the count. Not added to the species tally but added to the list of "waiting on..." species that we keep in our heads. So, in the end, you might be looking at 95 species with some idea of whether or not other species might be added to push it to 100. So... do you end the count with an exact species total? Nope! But does it give a nice snapshot of the surprises of the day? Yep!
I was happy to hear that the NSWO was something needed by Andrew as he was trying to piece together a Wahkiakum County big year. It's baffling... the record number of species seen in a year? 190, by a birder who was not, (to my understanding?), a resident of the county. Andrew was sitting at 180ish going into the count, so we were looking for any possibilities to add to his tally.
Good lord, for as much as he has been seeking out and documenting species around Wahkiakum County all these years, it seems bizarre that he would not hold the record. If it's not this year, I hope that he lands it in some future year so that the correct name is on that list of record-holders! For perspective, on Washington Birder, I think I am listed as the yearlist record holder for Klickitat County. Highest total ever reported for that county at like... 185? 186? The highest total from eBird is well over 200, so it's like... offensive to me that I have the "record" here!
If nothing else, I'm proud that every species I see is part of a transparent process - the blogs that I do each year. So, anyone wanting to look at how and where and when I found *anything* in Klickitat County can look at Klickitat County Birding. The answers, along with answers to "what species did you NOT see?" are all in there.
In addition to Wahkiakum County talk, I steered things towards my next-year county, Pacific County.
"Andrew... can we talk kayaks a bit more? I know you don't want me to die...."
We had shot messages back and forth on email about kayak options. I am looking to purchase one in the upcoming year and was looking for advice. After I brought it up, we talked a little bit, and he asked where I wanted to take it...
"Willapa Bay?"
"People have died kayaking on Willapa Bay." Andrew then went into the eleven reasons why people can die kayaking there. Everything from tide to winds....
"Well, there go my plans to kayak to Long Island."
"Oh! Long Island? You could get there in a bathtub."
lol!
So...as I hoped and expected, the tiny channel separating Long Island from the "mainland" where one might put in... it's just sheltered enough and a short enough distance that some of the aforementioned death-potential factors are not serious considerations. This... my friends, has me excited for the new year. That new year starts... well it has begun, I suppose! I am birding Pacific County in 2026 and have nearly no idea how many birds I'll end up seeing. I mean... it is most likely going to be about 215 species, but outside of that, I have not a clue.
There are a lot of challenges ahead, including trips into the wildlands of the Willapa Hills... kayaking... long hikes on Leadbetter Point (after the long drive to Leadbetter Point)... seabird watches where I'll be squinting at specks, trying to pull out species that I've never seen before... pelagic trips that may or may not even GO to Pacific County... It's going to be a crapshoot! But 215 is my current guess. The year list record is 220, and I have recently downgraded my guess to "yeah, probably not", but one never knows what a year might bring!
Heading Home
I didn't leave with just a single addition to my Wahkiakum and Cowlitz lists!
The next morning, I did a run through Puget Island with 7 species in mind. I got one of them, a Merlin! 159 for my Wahkiakum list. Lord that feels like it's 2000 miles from 175!
I slipped over to Cowlitz from there and was able to find a Red-throated Loon at the mouth of the Kalama River, my 169th species in the county. Lord that feels so close to 175!
For the trip, three species added to county lists that were still short of 175. I'll get there eventually, and will try to keep things updated here as I inch them closer!
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