November-December 2009 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

8/8/2019 November-December 2009 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

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Membership MeetingSunday December 6, 2009

Rounding up the usual suspectsDiscovering species at CBC

1:30 pm 3 pmPearsall Building

2109 Sumner Avenue, Aberdeen

The

Sandpiper

November/December 2009

COASST: Coastal Obser-vation And Seabird SurveyTeamvolunteers neededLiving on the beach offers manyexciting opportunities to expandindividual knowledge, meet newfriends and enjoy the great out-doors. The Ocean Shores Inter-

pretive Center is looking for justthose sorts of folks to refresh theCOASST program at the Center.

If you like to organize and seeit result in success, the position ofa leader is open to help schedulemonthly meetings. This personmay be someone who is unable towalk the beaches but who wantsand opportunity to learn and con-tribute on a large scale, said GeneWoodwick, center docent. Beachwalkers would cover the same

one or two mile area of a beachon a regular basisat least once amonth to collect data. The SouthCoast division of the COASSTProgram includes Ocean Shores.Volunteers will monitor DamonPoint which is broken into threeareas, North Jetty, South But-ter Clam, South Chance la Mer.South Taurus and the dune beach-es will also have specic areas for

observation.Free training will be available

from COASST scientists, bi-ologists, etc. at the InterpretiveCenter. The COASST people,who have been longtime volun-teers for local beaches will also be available to provide personalexperiences and knowledge. Vol-unteers may leave their contact

information by calling 360/289-4617. For more information onthe program visit www.coasst.org

The COASST Program whichactually begun at the OceanShores Interpretive Center hasnow spread from Northern Or-egon to Alaska. Dr. Tom Goodof the University of Kansas spentthree summers on the NorthBeach studying the Grays Harbor

Hybrid gull. During that time,he observed bird mortalities onthe beach and began tracking thesame. He then began keeping incontact with Dr. Todd Haas of theUniversity of Washington, De-partment of Fishery Sciences.

Dr. Julia Parrish, also known asQueen of the Murres, and Haasdeveloped a citizen-in-sciencesystem to gather bird mortalitydata. They approached the Inter-pretive Center to test the system

through the use of Center volun-teers. Twelve volunteers walkedthe beach after they were trainedin data collection. Monthly train-ing sessions included develop-ment of a eld training manualnow used in the COASST pro-gram. Locally the group wasknown as the Dead Bird Soci-ety where they met new friendsand became procient in collect-

ing needed data.The data collection is of great

importance to understandingthe effects of pollution, weatherconditions such as El Nino, etc.on sea life. Until the advent ofCOASST there was no consistentdata base of bird mortalities. Themajority of COASST volunteersdo not have a scientic back-

ground but are people who loveto learn, who enjoy walking thebeach, and who have a desire tocontribute in a meaningful wayto protect their coastal world andpractice good stewardship of re-sources.

The network of citizen surveyteams monitor one or two milesof beach, at least once a monthto observe and identify the birds,then complete the data informa-

tion using the eld guide. Allsupplies are provided throughthe COASST program. Thisdata is translated into data bases by UW students against whichany human or natural impact canbe measured and assessed. Thusthe nearshore ecosystems world-wide can then be actively known,managed, and protected.

This project may become evenmore important to Grays Harbor,if the Imperium Bio-Diesel plant

converts to crude oil production.


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The Presidents Perch

By Arnie Martin

page 2

Money, money, moneyand other important stuffAs I mentioned before in this

column, your Audubon chapterneeds money to allow it to con-tinue its work in the community,and to manage its land holdings properly. Well, we are doingsomething to raise money: weheld a garage sale at the GraysHarbor Farmers Market in Ho-quiam (1956 Riverside Ave)starting at 10:00 AM on Satur-

day November 7th. People do-nated generously and several ofthe Board and members stayedto help with the sales eventhroughout the blustery, coldday. Thanks to everyones hardefforts we raised over $400.00.

Two meetings were held toacquaint Audubon memberswith the proposed installationof wind turbines at Radar Ridgenear Naselle. The rst was held

for the Willapa Hills and Dis-covery Coast Chapters and thesecond was held for the GraysHarbor and Willapa Hills chap-ters. During these meetings, thecompany that is developing theinstallation, Energy Northwest,detailed the three-year studythat has been done to predictthe number of Marbled Murre-lets, a threatened species, whichwould be endangered, or killed,by the operation of this installa-

tion of up to 32 turbines. Ener-gy Northwest is developing thewind site to fulll the require-ments for renewable energysources required by I-937, andhas commitments from GraysHarbor, Pacic County, andClallam County PUDs and Ma-son County PUD #3 that theywould buy the power from theseturbines.

Your chapters board of direc-tors has voted to support theAudubon Washingtons resolu-tion to oppose the constructionof the wind turbine installationat Radar Ridge as it is currentlydesigned. Audubon Washington

would support future re-consid-eration of the resolution if thechanges in siting the turbinesaway from the Nemah Conserva-tion Resource Area by 0.6 mileand curtailing turbine operationduring the peak hours (1 hourprior to sunrise to 1/2 hour aftersunrise and from 1/2 hour beforesunset to 1 hour after sunset)of Murrelet ights during themonths when they are feedingtheir young were implemented.

Energy Northwest has verballyagreed to some of these pro-posed changes, but the AudubonWashington Conservation Com-mittee feels that these changesshould be required in the oper-ating permit for this installation.Please keep yourselves informedon this installation by attendinghearings and presentations, andthen, informing WashingtonState Commissioner of Public

Lands, Peter Goldmark, of yourconcerns regarding the current permit that Energy Northwestholds for this Radar Ridge site.I would suggest that we should

support modication to I-937,as detailed in the October 2009letter to Grays Harbor PUDratepayers by CommissionerTom Casey (an insert into yourOctober electric bill). Thisthoughtful letter suggests thatenergy conservation is the most

economical way to avoid havingto build expensive power gener-ation systems, causing high debtloads which require selling ex-cess capacity to service the debt.Please read his letter on page 4of your Grays Harbor PUD En-ergy newsletter.

Page 1 of the same newslet-ter gives the description of thestudies that have been done to continued on page 3

predict the environmental con-sequences of the Radar Ridgewind turbines, and particularlythe last paragraph, which statesthat the participants remainfully committed to obtaining allrequired environmental permitsin consultation with the appro-

priate agencies to ensure thatthis project is developed in amanner protective of the envi-ronment. Audubon Washing-ton is committed to maintainingits oversight of the appropriateagencies to ensure that the high-est standards of environmentalprotection are required.

Please come to the membershipmeeting and vote for our slate ofofcers for 2010.

President

Mary ONeillVice-President

Arnie MartinTreasurer

Diane SchwickerathSecretarynominations from the oor

More project backgroundUnder Doug Sutherland, the pre-vious Commissioner of PublicLands, the WA Department of

Natural Resources issued a con-ditional permit to Energy North-west, a consortium of utility dis-tricts, to investigate siting a windenergy facility on Radar Ridge,Pacic County, WA. The projectsite was originally developed asa radar facility by the Air Forcein 1952 during the Korean War, but now houses a transmissionsite for communications. Thewind facility would extend tothe north and south along Radar

Ridge, beyond the communica-tions center, and into DNR landscurrently used for tree farms.The project would include 27 to32 wind turbines, placed in or-der to avoid the communicationstowers and the beams going outfrom them. The project wouldtie in to an existing BPA line


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Project info continued frompage 2feeding to the existing NaselleSubstation, while a new substa-tion on Radar Ridge would berequired, along with an over-head line (1 mile) to connect to

the BPA right-of-way.The result would be a single lineof turbines, so birds ying east west would have to cross theline once, rather than througha maze of turbines. Proposedblade tip height: perhaps 125 to130 meters from the ground.Talking Points You May Wantto Include:E The Radar Ridge projectsite is located on WashingtonDNR lands at Radar Ridge, Pa-cic County within the NemahMarbled Murrelet ManagementArea (MMMA).E The Nemah MMMA is thehighest quality habitat for mur-relets in southwestern Washing-ton, and a core habitat area and population center for the long-term recovery of this species.Most of the surrounding forestis identied as critical nestinghabitat, and has been designated

by the federal recovery plan andWashington DNR Marbled Mur-relet Science Team to be impor-tant for long-term recovery ofthe Marbled Murrelet.E Audubon recognizes the Nemah MMMA as part of theNaselle Uplands Important BirdArea, a site that qualies as aGlobally Important Bird Area based on its breeding MarbledMurrelets.E Direct impacts of birds col-

liding with rotors is a seriousconcern, especially as injury ordeath of one parent bird wouldresult in desertion of the nest.

West, Inc., Energy NWs con-sultant, has been collecting data,using Doppler radar, for almost3 years on the movement ofbirds at the site. In presentationson June 9 and 10, Energy North-west claimed that their propri-

etary strike protocol calcu-lates that only 0, 1 or 2 MarbledMurrelets might be injured orkilled each year. However, asthe formula is proprietary, it isimpossible to determine, eitherthrough peer-review or the pub-

lic process, whether Energy NWis using the best available sci-ence.

In contrast to Energy NWscalculations, an independent re-view by DNR in July calculatedthat each year 87 Marbled Mur-relets would be in the wind tow-er strike zone as they crossed theridge. Their analysis shows the project would put 2,625 birdsat risk over the 30-year life ofthe wind project, and concludes

there would be adverse affectsto Marbled Murrelets.E The project also poses threatsto Marbled Murrelet breedinghabitat. This species is declining because its habitat has becomefragmented and scattered intoincreasingly isolated islands.Placing a wind energy facility inthe center of this Marbled Mur-relet Management Area will addto the problem of habitat frag-

mentation. It also would not beconsistent with the DNRs ownlong-term conservation strategy,which identies a goal of cre-ating more and better breedinghabitat over the next 70 years byencouraging tree growth aroundcurrent old-growth breeding ar-eas.E We need better regulatoryguidance for wind energy de-velopment in Washington. De-veloped with a focus on Eastern

Washington, the WashingtonsWind Energy Guidelines areinadequate for addressing windenergy development in West-ern Washington, and so provide poor guidance for this project.Likewise, DNR is signatory toa Habitat Conservation Planthat addresses managementacross forested state trust lands, but wind energy generation is

not covered by this agreement.These regulatory guidelinesneed to be revised before moreprojects are permitted.

Every thing did banish moan,Save the nightingale alone:She, poor bird, as all forlorn,Leand her breast up-till athorn,And there sung the dolefullst

ditty,That to hear it was great pity:Fie, fe, fe, now would shecry;Tereu, tereu! by and by;That to hear her so complain,Scarce I could from tears re-frain;For her griefs, so lively shown,Made me think upon my own.

William Shakespeare, Passionate

Pilgrim


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There's a wren above mydoorway

By Jack DavisWritten for the Echo, the Black Hills

Audubon Newsletter, March/April

1992

A few days before Christmas I

was idly examining one of thoseanthologies commonly used forfreshman compositions in Eng-lish. Among the selections wasa piece by John Burroughs en-titled "The Winter Wren". Mr.Burroughs' observations, re-corded perhaps a century ago,were made in the Catskills.They might well have been herein Puget Sound today."He never ascends the tall trees,

itting from stump to stump

and from root to root dodgingin and out of his hiding places,and watching all intruders witha suspicious eye."

Exactly. Seldom have I seenone y more than a few feet.How did they nd their way tothe Pribilof Islands in Alaska'sBering Sea, 300 miles fromthe continent? Yet there theyare. Permanent residents, theymerely substitute lava boulders

for stumps and roots.The weather station on St. PaulIsland occupied an abandonedCoast Guard station. One of the buildings, used as storage forhelium tanks and for inating balloons for upper air sound-ings, provided winter quartersfor Winter Wrens. Often onewould be scolding away at us aswe lled the balloons with gas,upset over the noise of the hiss-ing gas. Here in our woods it is

not unusual to have one chat-tering and singing within a fewfeet when I turn off my infernalchain saw.Spanning the years of our resi-

dence here, Winter Wrens haveoften sought some cranny inour dwelling in which to roostduring winter. During the dryweather this past fall, I habitu-ally left open the metal door to

our garage. Droppings on thecement led me to discover somegrass tucked into the bracingof the upturned door, an alcovejust big enough to accommodatea thumb-sized bird. In order to break the bird's habit before

colder weather, I thereafter keptthe door closed.Within a few days I noted drop-

pings at the doorway into ourworkshop. Sure enough, thereabove the doorway on a 2X4 ismy diminutive friend's replace-ment roost site.

Of the North American wrens,this species has the most ex-tensive range. Nevertheless,in Puget Sound - as well as theAleutian Islands and Pribilof

Islands - it is exceptionally sed-entary. I doubt if this individualhas ever been as much as a fewhundred feet from our house.For this we are grateful. Couldthere be better company?

Seabirds take a majorhit....again

By Dianna Moore

On October 21st, I was ridingalong on a coastal raptor sur-vey with Dr. Dan Varland when

we began to see Red-throatedLoons out of the water. Therst one we checked to see if ithad a broken wing; it didn't butit was shivering convulsively. Icalled Beacon Pest Control inOcean Shores (they are the lo-cal wildlife rescue folks as wellas pest control) and they agreedto take the bird. We continuedon with our survey, intending

to return and pick up the bird af-terwards, but we found anotherloon, then a Common Murre,then more loons. By the time weconcluded the survey we hadseen 8 birds in trouble.I called the ofce for COASST

(see related article in this issue)as I am also a volunteer for theorganization and spoke withJane Dolliver. She said she hadbeen receiving calls from othervolunteers out on the coast, alltelling her the same thing. Theworst reports were coming fromthe Long Beach Peninsula wherevolunteers were nding literallyhundreds of stranded seabirds.

On his October 22nd raptorsurvey to the Long Beach Pen-

insula, Dan Varland and histeam found a total of 235 strand-ed birds...and a large contingentof volunteers gathering them upand taking them to the Wild-life Center of the North Coast,a wildlife rescue facility out ofAstoria, Oregon. The volunteersspent 7 hours out on the beachand rescued nearly 300 birds.

Over the next two days theyfanned out as far south as Can-

non Beach, and found over 500birds in dire need of help. It hasseverely strained their resources, both nancially and with theirvolunteers.

Dr. Julia Parrish, one of thefounders of COASST explainedthis "wreck" of seabirds as it iscalled as the result of an abnor-mal bloom of the single-celledalgae Akashiwo sanguinea. Thisis the third time this has hap- pened since 2007 when it hit

Monterey Bay in California. Thelast wreck was in September offKalaloch on the Olympic Pen-insula, when about a thousanddead and dying scoters washedup. It isn't known why this hap-pens but marine biologists thinkit is related to a combination ofwarmer-than-usual-water andlow salinity.

Continued on Page 5


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Seabirds again continued frompage 4

The recent offshore windschurned up the sea and causedthe algae to come ashore as athick, sticky foam coating the birds and stripping their feath-

ers of waterproong oil, caus-ing hypothermia. The rescuedbirds were rst given warm u-ids and food to stabilize them.They were then washed in tubsof warm, soapy water, a verystressful process for them. Theywere then housed in large cagesunder warm air dryers, on a bedof raised nets to prevent injuries.Finally they are placed in preen-ing pools where they do the restthemselves.

Due to the large number of birdsneeding help, the Wildlife Cen-ter of the North Coast shippednearly 100 birds to P.A.W.S.Wildlife Center in Lynnwood.150 birds were driven by vanto the International Bird RescueResearch Center in Faireld,Ca., and the next day the U.S.Coast Guard got involved usinga C-130 Hercules. They ewto Portland, Oregon from their

base near Sacramento, Ca. topick up another 305 birds, whichwere then taken to the IBRRC.Some of these treated birdshave already been released intoSan Francisco Bay. For now thebloom seems to have subsided.

Postscript:Sadly, that C-130 with someof the same crew collided witha Marine Corp helicopter offSan Diego on October 29th and

crashed into the sea, killing 7crew members aboard the planeand 2 aboard the Cobra heli-copter. Our hearts go out to thecrewmembers families and theirfellow Guardians.

Never too young

Hadley Ayn Durr, 7 months

Volunteers neededThe Grays Harbor Shorebird

Festival is again starting its or-ganizational meetings for the2010 Festival. The 2010 Fes-tival dates are April 30 throughMay 2nd. We need a few vol-

unteers to help with the festival planning, especially in vendorregistration/recruitment and or-ganization/setup of the BirdersMarketplace. This position en-tails attending monthly meetings(rst Tuesday of the month inMontesano) and helping duringthe festival (this year its at Cen-tral Elementary in Hoquiam).Please contact Arnie Martin at360-612-0437 if youre inter-ested in helping.

2009 Christmas Bird

Count By Dianna MooreThe Grays Harbor CBC will

be held on Saturday, December26th and the Satsop (East Coun-ty) CBC on Monday, Decem-ber 28th. For more information,contact Dianna Moore for theGH CBC at [email protected] or 360-289-5048. TheSatsop CBC contact is TomSchooley at [email protected] or 360-357-9170.

Please join us for another mind- boggling, bird-hopping sessionin the amazing Grays Harbor!We ALWAYS nd good birds!Tim O'Brien has agreed to joinus this year, so it should be agreat experience, and accordingto the weather experts this willbe a warmer and dryer winter...HOORAY!

Only you can save GHASand its birds

by Dianna Moore,Membership Chair

Hello fellow bird lovers! I have been given the task of writingthis to those of you who no lon-ger pay dues but still receive this

newsletter. If you want to con-tinue to be counted as a memberof Grays Harbor Audubon, youmust pay your $25 minimum an-nual membership to this organi-zation. A membership in Nation-al Audubon no longer covers thelocal chapter memberships.

Grays Harbor Audubon is anendangered species at this point,and we must cut back on our ex-penses. We mail out over 200 is-

sues of The Sandpiper so that wecan continue to use a bulk mailing permit, yet only approximately75 go to current members. If wesend newsletters only to thosewho are current in their member-ship we can save on the costs ofprinting and the bulk permit fees.We have to cut back somewhere.

We recognize many are no lon-ger able to afford what has be-come a non-essential. Times aretough for so many individuals,

let alone non-prot organizationssuch as Audubon. But if you wantto have a voice in the issuesfacing the birds of Grays Har- bor and those passing throughon their migration, please joinus. We are more powerful as anorganization than as individuals,and the birds need our help.


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GHAS Board of Directors

Steve Hallstrom 273-9280 [email protected]

Theressa Julius 537-4386 [email protected]

Arnie Martin 612-0437 [email protected]

Dianna Moore 289-5048 [email protected]

Mary ONeil 533-9833 [email protected] Orgel 648-2476 [email protected]

Renee Prine 268-0485 [email protected]

Diane Schwickerath 495-3101 [email protected]

Janet Strong 495-3950 [email protected]

Chapter Ofcers

President Arnie Martin 612-0437

[email protected]

Vice President Mary ONeil 533-9833

[email protected]

Treasurer Diane Schwickerath 495-3101

[email protected] Theressa Julius, 537-4386

[email protected]

Committee Chairs

Newsletter R.D. Grunbaum, 648-2476

[email protected]

Membership Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Conservation Janet Strong, 495-3950

[email protected]

Education Renee Prine, 268-0485

Field Trips Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Program Chair Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Hospitality Linda Orgel 648-2476

[email protected]

Publicity Vacant

Habitat Vacant

Other Audubon Contacts

GHAS voice mail (800) 303-8498

State Audubon (360) 786-8020

National Audubon (212) 979-3000

GHAS Website http://www.ghas.org

Are you interested in receivingThe Sandpiper online? Send usyour email address and we canforward the latest issue the mo-ment it is ready to publish or visithttp://ghas.org to view the news-letter as a color pdf le. Youremail remains private with us.

GHAS MissionThe mission of the Grays

Harbor Audubon Society isto seek a sustainable balancebetween human activity andthe needs of the environ-ment; and to promote enjoy-ment of birds and the naturalworld


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November-December 2009 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

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