1999 Annual Conference — Yakima
by Andy Stepniewski
The 1999 Washington Ornithological Society
Conference was held in Yakima, Washington, August
27-29, 1999. An impressive list of over 150 species were
seen on the various field trips offered during the
conference. What follows is a discussion of the birds
seen, with notes on unusual species. Finally, I speculate
on some notable “misses.”
Starting with Vantage on the Columbia River,
various diving birds associated with this extensively
man-altered habitat were seen. The slackwaters behind
the numerous dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers
now offer a habitat probably not available to any extent
in the interior of Washington prior to dam construction.
common loon, horned and red-necked grebes, doublecrested
cormorant, glaucous-winged gull were all noted.
Many passerines use the riparian-zone vegetation along
the Columbia at Vantage. However, perhaps due to
stable weather both before and during the conference,
the hoped-for rare warblers “dancing over our
heads” (Steve Mlodinow’s fantasy) were seemingly
absent. It may be that migrants were not being stressed
so much that they were forced to seek food and shelter
along the low river valleys, thus departing this region
presumably at higher altitudes in the mountains or just
cruising over in the stratosphere (a bit of an
exaggeration).
Some species characteristic of this most arid region
of Washington were observed, however: prairie falcon,
Say’s phoebe, rock and canyon wrens, and lark
sparrow.
Participants on the popular trip to
the stately Garry Oak groves and fort
at Fort Simcoe saw tons of
charismatic Lewis’s woodpeckers, as
advertised, a good variety of
swallows, white-breasted nuthatch,
gray catbird, yellow-breasted chat,
grasshopper sparrow (on the late
side), and black-headed grosbeak.
Most intriguing at Fort Simcoe
was a single observer report by Jerry
Broadus (with experience with this
species in Texas) of a yellow-billed
cuckoo being chased into the trees by
a mob of Lewis’s woodpeckers. It
could not be relocated. If confirmed, I
believe it would be a first record for
south-central Washington.
Waterfowl and shorebirds
numbers and diversity at nearby
Toppenish NWR were low due to the
scarcity of standing water.
The trip into the scenic Yakima
Canyon yielded osprey, prairie falcon,
chukar, a migrant gray flycatcher
along Umtanum Creek (a species
infrequently recorded in Washington
away from its breeding habitat in the
lower Ponderosa Pine Zone), a nice
collection of passerine migrants and
lazuli bunting (recorded also at Fort
Simcoe and in the Wenas area, a
species heretofore seldom noted at
the end of August in this region).
The Wenas trip had the highest
species list of any of the field trips (69)
which surprised me a little. If this trip
had been scheduled in May or June,
this would have been expected in my
experience (100+ species is usual on
the same route in spring). By the end
of August, however, the Wenas area
seems to get quiet and it usually is
more difficult to find the birds. Singing
has ceased, the birds tend to be in
drabber plumages and less
conspicuous. The high count
undoubtedly reflects both the expert
leadership represented on this trip and
very possibly the fact I am wrong - it is
now proven that many of the breeding
species for which the Wenas area is
justly famed can still be found late in
August (albeit with a bit more effort).
Certainly boosting the total in the
Wenas was eight species of
shorebirds on Wenas Lake, including
Baird’s sandpiper.
Other notable
sightings included: golden eagle,
calliope hummingbird, red-eyed vireo
(likely a migrant as not known as a
breeder here in recent years), pygmy
nuthatch, western and mountain
bluebirds, purple finch (a very local
breeder on the lower east slopes of
the Cascades), and red crossbill.
The Moxee/Grandview Sewage
Ponds trip took most trip participants
to a “life” sewage treatment facility.
Shorebirds were the attraction here,
including black-necked stilt, both
yellowlegs, solitary sandpiper, western
and least sandpipers, long-billed
dowitcher, and red-necked phalarope.
Swainson’s hawk was noted in the
Black Rock Valley east of Yakima as
expected.
The Cascades - Bethel Ridge trip
took us to all the way up to Timberwolf
Mountain (6,300’), a very scenic peak
which formerly was the site of a fire
lookout. In the lower forests, we
encountered scads of birds, including
seven species of woodpeckers
(Lewis’s woodpecker, Williamson’s
and red-naped sapsuckers, downy hairy, and white-headed woodpeckers, and northern flicker).
Other birds included olive-sided
flycatcher, Hammond’s flycatcher, all
three nuthatches, three chickadee
species, warblers (including a blackthroated
gray, scarce in this area) and
roving flocks of juncos.
On the return of this trip, we
stopped .10 mile east of the Hwy.
12/410 junction to look and listen for
the western scrub-jay seen by Bruce
LeBar and Ed Malais on 27 August
while driving to the conference. As in
Puget Sound, this species is evidently
spreading north in eas tern
Washington. I heard a family group in
Goldendale this July; this is some
distance north and east of their usual
limits in the Lyle area of Klickitat
County.
What was missed?
Only two
species of owls were found (barn and
great horned owl); this is in a region
noted for its diversity of this group. At
least nine more species can be
reasonably expected in the area at
this season! Is it fair to say the
Saturday evening banquet (rumor has
it the no-host bar did $400 worth of
sales) effectively reduced the number
of possible designated drivers and
observers willing (and capable) of
driving into the mountains to find the
owls?
The plus side of our miserable
owl list is we were off the highways.
I find it interesting both
Swainson’s thrush and veery were
missed. Both were likely present in
their respective habitats. Both become
more difficult to detect once they stop
singing, although they both have
distinctive, easily learned call notes.
Shrub-steppe species such as
sage thrasher and sage sparrow were
both missed. Both are still present in
the area, especially on the Yakima
Training Center.
Unfortunately, the
Department of the Army turned down
our request for access to this vast
(second largest contiguous tract of
shrub-steppe at 330,000 acres in
Washington) region. I sorely wanted
to share the treasures out there,
including dawn trips to Upper Cold
Creek, a superb corridor for countless
migrant passerines (and attendant
raptors). Maybe one day the birding
community (and the public) will have
free access to this critically important
hub of Washington’s shrub-steppe
ecosystem.
Finally, evening grosbeak was
missed. As Bill Tweit has documented
on his Rimrock Breeding Bird Survey,
this species is usually abundant in the
Douglas-fir forests of the lower east
slopes of the Cascades in the
breeding season. Where were they?
Has the long-term spruce budworm
outbreak taken its course in these
forests and these birds gone
someplace else? I don’t know.
Four field trips were held each
day and special thanks go to the
expert field trip leaders that made
such wonderful trips possible at the
convention.
Saturday: Brian Bell and Chris
Chappell led the trip to Toppenish
NWR and Fort Simcoe. Bruce Labar
led the Vantage Migrant Traps trip.
Denny Granstrand and Marcus
Roening led the trip to the Moxee
Valley and the Grandview Lagoons.
Hal Opperman and Tom Schooley led
the trip to Yakima Canyon.
Sunday: Scott Downes led the
Toppenish NWR/Fort Simcoe trip.
Bruce Labar and Bill Tweit led the trip
to Vantage and other areas on the
Columbia River. Tom Schooley and
Hal Opperman led a trip to the Wenas
Creek valley. Andy Stepniewski,
Denny Granstrand, and Brian Bell led
the trip up to Bethel Ridge.
Talks and Paper Presentations were:
Dr. Dan Stephens, Professor of
Biology at Wenatchee Valley College
gave a slide presentation introducing
the birds of eastern Washington. His
talk was organized around the
different habitats of the area.
Herbert A. Brown, Professor of
Biology at Western Washington
University in Bellingham, spoke on
“Nesting habits of the common bushtit
(Psaltriparus minimus) at the Sehome
Hill Arboretum on the campus of
Western Washington University: 25
years of observations”.
Susanne Bard, with the Animal
Behavior Program, Department of
Psychology at the University of
Washington gave a talk on “Song
learning in Song Sparrows in the Lab
and Field”.
Jennifer Seavey, with Michael
Williams Consulting, Seattle,
presented “Natural History and Habitat
Selection of Ash-throated Flycatcher
in Western Washington”.
Ken Bevis, Habitat Biologist with
the Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife in Yakima gave the talk
“Spotted Owls and the 1994 fires on
the Yakama Reservation”.
Dr. Dan Stephens, Professor of
Biology at Wenatchee Valley College,
presented “MAPS - Monitoring Avian
Production and Survivorship - Seven
Years of Banding at Douglas Creek”.
Ken Bevis, Habitat Biologist with
the Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife was the Saturday keynote
address speaker and one of the
conference highlights. Ken gave a
highly animated talk entitled “Birds in
Washington:
This was definitely a “no coffee
needed” presentation. Ken was able
to integrate birds into the bigger
picture of natural history and why it is
important to save habitat for all
species. At one point he aptly
illustrated his point by holding up in
front of the screen a study skin of the
extinct Carolina parakeet from the
Central Washington University
collection. Afterwards many of us went
up to look at and hold this beautiful
and brightly colored creature. It was
sad to think that we would never be
able to see this beautiful bird.
Lastly, thanks go to the
conference planners for making the
whole weekend such a success.
Special thanks go to Andy
Stepniewski for arranging all the
transportation and facilities and being
the man on the spot for last-minute
changes; Scott Morrison for being the
registrar and making sure everyone
got on the field trips they wanted and
keeping everyone organized; and
Marcus Roening for organizing all of
the field trip leaders, evening
speakers, paper presenters, and just
making sure everyone was taken care
