Post by tmanson on Dec 19, 2007 15:05:29 GMT -8
Hi all: I had the opportunity, yesterday, to do one of those " kamikaze " road trips- Oregon and back in a day. I bought a few carbon credits before I left!!! The following is a road trip report. CAUTION: The second part is a bit long, but when you're retired, you have time, eh!!
The target bird this time was an ARCTIC LOON , which had been reported as reliable in a place called Broadsmead Oregon. The advantage of leaving at 3:00 a.m. is that you can actually drive through Seattle, on the I-5, fairly quickly, and I was on this cooperative bird in 6 hours. Broadsmead is sort of a community adjoining the Columbia Estuary, west of Kelso-Longview, but on the Oregon side of the Columbia. If anyone is contemplating a road trip south over the holidays, and wants to see this bird, I would estimate a 1-2 hour return detour off the I-5 to see it. Based on previous postings on Tweeters, and Oregon Birds On Line, I think this bird will stick for awhile. You are welcome to e-mail me for specific directions. To save space here, I have posted a few pictues in the photo section.
Since I had seen the loon by 9:00 a.m., I decided to check something else out.
For me, that was the MONK PARAKEETS of Yacolt, Washington. ( post gets longer here ).
For those, who may have been following this saga on Tweeters, up until recently, there has been a colony of over 50 Monk Parakeets living in the community of Yacolt, Washington- a very picturesque village, in rolling countryside of south-west Washington, east of Woodlands- quite a difficult place to find, even with good maps.
The origin of the parakeets, which are obvioulsy introduced, is debabtable. I have read that they might be the descendants of a colony that was established in Portland, and/or they could be the result of some local realeases. In any event, this colony has been established in Yacolt for a number of years. They are not recognised by whatever organization is the official listing committee in Washington, but they are an American Birding Association countable bird; ( there are well established colonies in Florida, and elsewhere ).
Over the last month, a decision was made to try and eliminate these birds from this location. The original intention was to destroy the nests, and euthanize the birds. An important note is that these parakeets build stick nests, and when they do so on electrical transformers, shorts can occur, and some people lose their power temporarily.
The day I visited the community, the public utility company was there taking down nests. I spoke to one employee, and he said that he had removed a nest from a power pole two weeks ago, and the birds had returned to build another nest in the same location, which he was holding in his hands. The last report I saw on Tweeters was that they had " gassed " three birds, but public opinion had changed their strategy to giving away, as pets, any birds they could catch.
Unlike other introduced birds, which can have a negative impact on native bird populations, from what I have read, these parakeets, especially in this location, are pretty inocuous. There is also a local effort to build nesting sites for these birds, that they will hopefully patronize.
On this day, I saw four MONK PARAKEETS. I couldn't get any pictures, as they were extremely skiitish. The power utility guy told me the birds recognize their equipment now, and take off when they are in town.
From an outsider's perspective, it was an interesting place to visit, as the issue has polarized the town. I spoke to several local folk, who were kind of reluctant to talk about the birds; probably because I was a stranger, and they didn't want to give out too much information.
All in all, an intersting road trip. Cheers, Thor
Thor Manson
Hope, B.C.
The target bird this time was an ARCTIC LOON , which had been reported as reliable in a place called Broadsmead Oregon. The advantage of leaving at 3:00 a.m. is that you can actually drive through Seattle, on the I-5, fairly quickly, and I was on this cooperative bird in 6 hours. Broadsmead is sort of a community adjoining the Columbia Estuary, west of Kelso-Longview, but on the Oregon side of the Columbia. If anyone is contemplating a road trip south over the holidays, and wants to see this bird, I would estimate a 1-2 hour return detour off the I-5 to see it. Based on previous postings on Tweeters, and Oregon Birds On Line, I think this bird will stick for awhile. You are welcome to e-mail me for specific directions. To save space here, I have posted a few pictues in the photo section.
Since I had seen the loon by 9:00 a.m., I decided to check something else out.
For me, that was the MONK PARAKEETS of Yacolt, Washington. ( post gets longer here ).
For those, who may have been following this saga on Tweeters, up until recently, there has been a colony of over 50 Monk Parakeets living in the community of Yacolt, Washington- a very picturesque village, in rolling countryside of south-west Washington, east of Woodlands- quite a difficult place to find, even with good maps.
The origin of the parakeets, which are obvioulsy introduced, is debabtable. I have read that they might be the descendants of a colony that was established in Portland, and/or they could be the result of some local realeases. In any event, this colony has been established in Yacolt for a number of years. They are not recognised by whatever organization is the official listing committee in Washington, but they are an American Birding Association countable bird; ( there are well established colonies in Florida, and elsewhere ).
Over the last month, a decision was made to try and eliminate these birds from this location. The original intention was to destroy the nests, and euthanize the birds. An important note is that these parakeets build stick nests, and when they do so on electrical transformers, shorts can occur, and some people lose their power temporarily.
The day I visited the community, the public utility company was there taking down nests. I spoke to one employee, and he said that he had removed a nest from a power pole two weeks ago, and the birds had returned to build another nest in the same location, which he was holding in his hands. The last report I saw on Tweeters was that they had " gassed " three birds, but public opinion had changed their strategy to giving away, as pets, any birds they could catch.
Unlike other introduced birds, which can have a negative impact on native bird populations, from what I have read, these parakeets, especially in this location, are pretty inocuous. There is also a local effort to build nesting sites for these birds, that they will hopefully patronize.
On this day, I saw four MONK PARAKEETS. I couldn't get any pictures, as they were extremely skiitish. The power utility guy told me the birds recognize their equipment now, and take off when they are in town.
From an outsider's perspective, it was an interesting place to visit, as the issue has polarized the town. I spoke to several local folk, who were kind of reluctant to talk about the birds; probably because I was a stranger, and they didn't want to give out too much information.
All in all, an intersting road trip. Cheers, Thor
Thor Manson
Hope, B.C.
.
