ANNUAL KITTITAS AUDUBON SUMMER SOCIAL

Thursday, August 20th Come at 5:30 when the grills will fire up!

Where? 1831 Hanson Road Hal & Gloria Lindstrom’s “garden park”

Grilled hamburgers, buns, and the trimmings furnished by KAS

Please bring: an appetizer, a salad, or a dessert, individual beverage choice, plus

plate and utensils for each member of your party!!!

PLEASE CALL 933-1558 TO INDICATE YOU WILL BE COMING

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

The Hooter Kittitas Audubon August 2015

Audubon members are conservationists with a

high regard for wildlife. If you found a bird in danger, you’d help him, wouldn’t you? What about a rabbit or a turtle? But what if the animal in danger happened to be… a rattlesnake?

For a few Ellensburg locals, there’s no question about it. They spend up to six hours a night moving snakes from roads where they're often

struck and killed by careless or malicious drivers. It’s dangerous work, but not because of the rattlesnakes. The real danger comes in the form of drivers who, when they see people rescu-

ing a snake, will sometimes swerve toward them and accelerate, hoping to drive the rescuers back and kill the snake.

Along with rattlesnakes, the team regularly rescues Go-pher Snakes, Rubber Boas, and Night Snakes, with Western Racers, two species of Garter, and the adorably quirky Spadefoot Toad mak-ing occasional appearances.

Although it takes the team less than two minutes

to get a snake in hand and off the road, it's sometimes necessary to stop an approaching ve-hicle for a moment to allow a team member to get clear. Some drivers stop of their own accord when they see an awkwardly parked car with the hazards flashing. Either situation provides a unique opportunity to educate the public and

alert drivers to the need for caution in areas heavily used by snakes. More than one con-

cerned driver has been startled to find his offer of as-sistance met with a smile and a counter offer. “We’re just moving a rattle-snake off the road so he doesn’t get run over. Would you like to see him before we release

him?”

Responses run the gamut from fasci-nation to downright

(Continued on page 4)

“Snakes in the Night”

Using the Hook and Tail method

to move a Northern Pacific Rat-tlesnake. More comfortable for

the snake, because he doesn’t have his full weight resting on

the hook, and he can’t fall.

Page 2 The Hooter

Board Notes by Gloria Baldi

Remember, anyone can join the Board on the first Thurs-day of every month. Call any Board member for details!

Below is a summary of the varied subjects discussed, with decisions made. June and July have been combined be-cause we have no Hooter in July.

1. In June guests from the local Our Environment group

gave a presentation on their goals and actions.

2. KAS will again sponsor a film at the Ellensburg Film Festival in October. Films are being reviewed for selection. If you have an idea, contact the board!

3. KAS Projects reviewed:

a. Songbird Survey: Participants are tallying three

sagebrush-dependent species in specific areas.

b. Project Kestrel: 26 boxes have been placed in the county, and are being monitored. Four more are to be added for next year. (see page 8)

c. KAS has received a grant from National Audu- bon to be used as an educational tool for climate

change presentations in Eastern WA.

4. Presentations given by KAS members:

a. Jim Briggs to local Trail Riders Group about bird species to be seen on trails in Kittitas County.

b. Judy Hallisey and Barry Brunson to Noon Rotary Club on climate change relating to birds.

5. Jim Briggs will attend National Audubon’s Convention in Washington D.C. KAS will pay his registration fee.

6. The annual budget for KAS for fiscal year 2015-2016 was approved.

7. All KAS members are urged to present bills for reim- bursement on KAS projects in order to indicate the

scope of involvement in our projects.

8. National Audubon has an educational publication for fourth grade teachers called Audubon Adven- tures. Teachers to whom we have supplied the materials are no longer teaching in the dis- trict. ANY MEMBER KNOW OF A POSSIBILTY?

9. The status of KAS’s involvement in the WATV lawsuit

was discussed. Ground nesting birds could be signif- cantly impacted with noise and activity (grouse, mead- owlark, juncos, quail, Short-eared Owl, etc.)

10. Joe Meuchel reported wildlife habitat is expected to be drastically impacted with the drought. Trees are already showing stress, and without replanting, sage- brush communities take 30 years to begin recovering after a fire.

Send in your stories & photos!

The Hooter is the newsletter of

Kittitas Audubon, published

monthly except for July.

~~~~~~~

Submissions from members &

other readers are most wel-

come and encouraged! The editor reserves the right to edit

for space, grammar, and/or suit-

ability. Email text and/or photos to

bobcat@kvalley.com or snail mail

to Jan Demorest, Hooter Editor,

712 E 2nd Ave, Ellensburg, WA

98926. Submissions need to be in

by the 20th of the preceding month.

KAS BOARD MEMBERS President –Tom Gauron 968-3175

Vice President – Judy Hallisey 674-6858

Secretary – Jim Briggs 933-2231

Treasurer – Sharon Lumsden 968-3889

Conservation- Board members

Education – Judy Hallisey 674-6858

Field Trips – Steve Moore 933-1179

Historian – Gloria Lindstrom 925-1807

Programs – Jeb Baldi 933-1558

Publicity – Gerry Sorenson 968-4857

Scholarship – Gloria Baldi 933-1558

Climate Change – Barry Brunson 674-6858

Past President – Jim Briggs 933-2231

*Newsletter – Jan Demorest 933-1179

*Membership – Tuck Forsythe 925-2356

*Wildlife Habitat – Joe Meuchel 933-3011

*Bluebird boxes – Jan Demorest 933-1179

*Social Greeter – Kay Forsythe 925-2356

*Christmas Bird Count–Phil Mattocks 962-2191

*non-voting members

KAS Board Meetings are held at 4:30

PM on the 1st Thursday of each

month in the PUD meeting room,

1400 Vantage Highway. These meet-

ings are open to the public and all

Audubon members; please come and

join in the discussions. Meetings ad-

journ by 6:00 or 6:30, after which we

all go out for a sociable dinner ~ NO

business discussion allowed!

First Saturday BirdWalk ~ June 6th ~ was a hot one………weather-wise, that is! Seven folks endured the 70 to 84 degrees, but we were defi-nitely ready to quit by 11:00am.

If there were a phrase to describe the morning walk, it was ‘lots of’, that is, lots of bird song with unfound birds, lots of cottonwood fuzz on the ground, lots of House Wrens singing, lots of hot weather, lots of cars passing us, lots of people using the park.............but not lots

of birds to be discovered.

Some of the many Tree Swallows from last month were spotted near cavities, very definitely nesting. This includes the pair in the Kittitas Audu-bon nest box that was erected years

ago. As we approached the box, the parents appeared immediately to ward us off the ‘family home’.

The number of House Wrens singing was unusual. The entire morning walk was filled with the melodious trilling of this fantastic vocalist, even as we heard song after song of other species. Some songs we could recognize, but a few we could not. We did spot two of the singing House Wrens.

Only 27 species were listed on this morning. Af-ter last month’s high count of 40, we could only speculate on the low count in June. Climate

change? Less birds? Nesting so quietly that we could not discover their nests?

We found only one Mallard in the waterfowl cate-gory, no warblers or vireos, and three species that were heard only, the common Song Sparrow, a Black-headed Grosbeak, and a Killdeer. Well,

there is always next month. Join us on the 4th of July and we will celebrate birds.

~ Gloria Baldi

First Saturday BirdWalk ~ July 4th ~ was even hotter! Three intrepid birders met at 8 AM and since it was already 80 degrees and seemed rather humid, we decided unanimously to start off on the shady woodland trail by the river. We were immediately rewarded for our wise decision by the appearance of an American Dipper on the creek bank just to the right (east) of the bridge. One of our trio, Katie, had never seen a dipper, and had just mentioned, in the parking lot, that

she hoped we’d see one. Wish granted! The walk through the shady forest was beautiful and the

birds were singing and calling in the cool early morning: Downy Woodpeckers, Yellow Warblers, flickers, Western Wood-Peewee, Robins, chicka-dees, Mourning Doves.

Highlights were numerous:

I walked out to the riverbank on a trail edged

with tall grass, heard a high clear cry repeated continuously and saw the flash of a bird fly by.

It landed on a downed log near a shady inlet,

and began bobbing its tail up and down—bingo! A Spotted Sandpiper, still crying out, so we realized it must be guarding a nest.

We watched a flicker

feeding and guarding a nestling in a nest hole in a dead snag

Saw a Cedar Waxwing

with a fledgling, high in a bare dead tree. The

fledgie was begging for food, just like a kid!

We watched the swallows that were zooming

back and forth over the river, consulted field guides, looked and looked again through binocs, finally concluded that they were Rough-winged, landing on the far bank and poking

heads into holes, maybe feeding chicks still?

When we reached the edge of the woods at the car bridge, we decided to retrace our steps since it was in the 90s and we were feeling the heat. On the way back we spotted the Yellow Warbler male flitting about, we tried to indentify an Empid Fly-

catcher (not calling), got good looks at male & female Rufous Hummingbirds, heard a Cassin’s Vireo, and looked in vain for our kingfisher.

It was a very pleasant ladies’ walk, with 17 spe-cies total (seen and/or heard). Low number most likely due to heat!

~ Jan Demorest

Field Trip Reports Page 3 The Hooter

The mission of Kittitas

Audubon is to develop an

appreciation of nature through education and conservation,

with a focus on birds.

Spotted Sandpiper

Photo by Doug Backlund

Page 4 Hooter

confusion. The team is pretty sure that somewhere out there, two men who don’t speak a word of English are telling a wild tale about how they were pulled over by the police in the middle of no-where, and there

was this crazy woman smiling and threatening them with a snake, and then the police just let them go.

On a more successful note, the team once stopped a pair of col-lege students who seemed a little appre-hensive about the large rattlesnake the

team was moving. Still, they were clearly fascinated, and said the thought of snakes getting hit by cars had never occurred to them. They promised to pay closer atten-tion. Shortly after driving away, they made two sudden swerves. Team members raced to the lo-cation, expecting the worst, but instead found two rattlesnakes a

few yards apart on the road, en-tirely unharmed. Alerted by the im-promptu educa-tional moment, the students had spotted them and swerved to avoid hitting them.

One of the most

common ques-tions the team hears is, “Do you relocate the

snakes you rescue?” The answer is more important than it might seem. Snakes are highly sensitive to relocation and most relocated snakes will die, either from starva-tion when they give up hunting to search for a way home, or by freezing when winter arrives and they are unable to reach their

home den for hibernation. So the snake team only moves the res-cued snakes fifty to a hundred feet, and always in the direction they were traveling when they were found. Moving them in the opposite direction would leave

them on the wrong side of the road, re-quiring them to make an-other perilous crossing to

reach their destination.

Before releas-ing a rescued snake, the team does an

assessment for injuries and, if time permits, offers water to off-set the stress of handling. Badly injured snakes are placed in a cooler with ice to rapidly lower their metabolic rate, resulting in a hibernation-like state that dramatically increases the window of opportunity for medical intervention, and gives the team time to transport the snake to a veterinarian.

Snakes...(Continued from page 1)

(Continued on page 6)

SNAKES IN THE NIGHT...

This photo of the Rubber Boa gives you a better look at

the unique aspect — the blunt tail that makes it easy for predators to mistake the tail for the head.

Rattlesnake riding in the “don’t try this at

home” position. Never carry a rattlesnake this way! We just let him get away with it

because he was so calm and curious, and we’re experienced.

Head

Tail (rattles)

This is a Night Snake, Most

people will never see one, because they’re very cryp-

tic and nocturnal. Techni-cally venomous but not

dangerous to humans.

Giving a Gopher Snake a drink be-fore releasing him

Page 5 The Hooter

In early July, I attended the 2015 National Audu-bon Convention in Leesburg, Virginia. Since it was located in the Atlantic Flyway, I expected the focus to be on East Coast issues like shore-bird conservation. There was some of that, but the conference kicked off with a photo-documentary presentation by David Showalter, featuring his new book: Sage Spirit: the Ameri-can West at a Crossroads.

As a “grouse person”, I took copious notes and

picked up some quotes: “if you conserve Sage Grouse habitat, you conserve 350 additional ani-mals.” That is why it is so important that the Greater Sage Grouse be listed under the Endan-gered Species Act this September, so the BLM will be required to give the habitat of this west-ern icon its due consideration.

As if to bookend this sagebrush start, the last breakout session on the last day featured the one-million-acre sageland stronghold in Wash-ington’s Columbia Basin. Christi Norman, Robin Priddy, and Mike Ruth, with a number of volun-teers, like your humble Kittitas Chapter repre-

sentative (reporting on behalf of KAS’s 19 par-ticipants), described the Sagebrush Songbird Survey and its importance in developing a base-line for the bird community in this threatened ecosystem.

The intervening space of the conference for me focused on Audubon’s ambitious Climate Change

Initiative. Here I was treated as a rock star be-cause of our Climate Change Committee efforts. We were referenced several times as “a small chapter doing big things.”

Audubon President and CEO, David Yarnold, de-scribed “A Field Guide to a Warmer Future,” out-lining what we can do as an organization of con-cerned citizens. Maybe we can incorporate it into our own illustrated program, by helping our members help the people in our communities help the birds in their environment. We can do easy things like promote green rooftops—planting vegetation on top of flat buildings, like

many municipals, which provides some micro-habitat and reduces energy use by virtue of its insulating qualities. But we can also do some big things.

The keynote speaker Sunday morning was Katherine Hayhoe, who is on the A-list of climate scientists and educators. She delivered an illus-trated program that very closely paralleled the one prepared by our own Climate Change Com-

mittee, confirming that we are on the right track.

I attended a breakout session with Katherine Hayhoe. She said we need to “…connect climate change into every opportunity we have.” So

your climate committee asks that KAS members be alert for opportunities, like the one Jeb Baldi snagged for us, to speak to the horse trail riders group, who wanted a program on birds that might be encountered while riding. We added hints about an uncertain future as the climate

changes. We have an upcoming invitation to a garden club for birds of the garden, another op-portunity to bring up the issue.

Hayhoe said we need to put a price on carbon. And it will not be easy because the whole global infrastructure is based on combustion that pro-duces carbon by-products. There was a discus-sion about fairness and the idea that rather than have the developing world go through the carbon cycle that got us where we are, they should jump right to sustainability. This is what Tom and Renee Cottrell, from Ellensburg, will be working on during their two-year Peace Corps

assignment in Senegal.

I attended a workshop about developing “climate strongholds”, one of the important methods of bringing birds through until we can solve the problem. The National Guard’s Camp Ripley in Minnesota is an Important Birding Area (IBA) because, in spite of military-related activities, it

is a well preserved habitat, similar to the Yakima Training Center which serves the same function in the shrub steppe.

The San Fernando Valley Chapter in California is publishing a list of drought-tolerant plants to mitigate the water shortage. This is one of the elements to be included in Conserving Water, Preserving Birds best practice guidelines for cre-ating habitat that is simultaneously bird-friendly, water-conserving, fire-wise, and carbon-sequestering. This will help guide neighborhood, school, and city landscaping efforts in our region and throughout Eastern Washington. We hope

to help people landscape not only drought-wise but fire-wise.

So while there was a lot of doom and gloom at the conference, there were some rays of hope and I felt that Audubon has really mobilized its chapters and made its decades-long citizen sci-

ence available.

~ Jim Briggs

The “Sagebrush Conference”

Page 6 Hooter Continuing…..

MARK SEPTEMBER 17TH ON YOUR CALENDAR FOR THE FIRST KITTITAS AUDUBON

MEETING/PROGRAM OF THE YEAR!!!

Look for details in the September Hooter.

Many thanks to the Ellensburg Public Library for sponsoring our meetings here!

Ultimately, most conversations the team has about their work tend to come back around to the rattlesnakes. Why rescue such dangerous ani-mals? Have you ever been bitten? Aren’t you afraid of them?

In fact, the rattlesnakes aren’t much different from the other snakes. They’re calmer and more placid about handling than some of the smaller snakes, and certainly no more likely to bite than a

garter or gopher snake. Moreover, only about fifty percent of defensive bites deliver venom. Our area has only a single rattlesnake species -- the North-ern Pacific (Crotalus oreganus). Its venom is pri-marily hemolytic, causing tissue damage, but not interfering with vital functions. There are far more dangerous things in the Pacific Northwest. Among them are stairs and vending machines, both of which injure and kill more people every year than rattlesnakes.

The next time you spot a snake on the road, how

about giving him a lift? After all, on the evolution-ary scale, birds and snakes are almost family!

~ story & photos submitted

Snakes….(Continued from page 4)

Solstice Gift

by Gia Cummisk

Because I have overgrown vegetation, I was de-termined in early June to trim back the bushes and again discover my low wall. While indis-criminately whacking branches, I was startled as

a bird flashed from the thicket, nearly hitting me. All I saw was gray about quail-sized, so I assumed I had scared a female off her nest. Pulling aside the next handful of bushes, I gently peeked under and discovered a nest with five eggs in it. I promptly quit cutting, hoping I had-

n't cut too many branches so that the numerous neighborhood cats could find the nest, or the chicks when they eventually hatched. About a week later I peeked again, and there were four-teen eggs in the nest. I assumed she decided it was safe enough.

After a few days I checked a third time, and out

she flew, so I knew all was well, and she still had all those eggs. My mother (Gloria Baldi)

informed me that California Quail incubate about twenty-one days. My calculations put that at the Solstice, or Father’s Day weekend. When I checked at that time, the nest was empty (except for eggshells), just like the photo. I haven't seen the little fluff balls with toothpick legs anywhere, so I assume they are eating all

the bugs they can find, growing strong and healthy for the winter months.

Quail chickies fledged and gone!

How to move a rattlesnake safely:

always approach the rattlesnake so he can see you — but not too close or too fast, or he'll be afraid to turn his back on you so he’ll just coil up and wait for you to leave. Once he knows you’re there, you just move back toward his

tail. He gets nervous about you being behind him and will move away. Then you just walk beside him and walk him off the road. We don’t use this method all that often in rescue, because we’re trying to reach as many snakes as we can, but when I’m on a road that’s not so busy, that’s how I move

them. It’s totally safe, be-cause you never move into the strike range.

Page 7 Hooter

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HOOTER” ONLINE

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postage. If you would

prefer to receive the

electronic version,

send your name, mailing address, &

email address to:

info@kittitasaudubon.org

At the beginning of each month,

we’ll send you an email with a quick

link to the new Hooter.

Darling Bird Studios, ©2007 UNA

BECOME A KITTITAS AUDUBON MEMBER!! (Or renew your membership)

Receive The Hooter ~ help support education and conservation activities and projects!

Two options are available:

OPTION 1: Membership in National Audubon includes a subscription to the magazine, Audubon, membership in the local chapter (KAS), and KAS monthly newsletter, THE HOOTER

____ Join as a new National Audubon member $20 (includes KAS membership)

____ Renew a National Audubon membership $35

Make check payable to: National Audubon Society Include this form and mail to: Membership Data Center, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235

Name ___________________________ Address __________________________________________

City _____________________________ State, ZIP _________________________________________

Chapter Code COZY220Z

OPTION 2: Membership in only the local chapter, KAS, includes the monthly newsletter, THE HOOTER

____ Join the local Kittitas Audubon Society (KAS) chapter $20

____ Renew your KAS membership $20

____ Make a donation to KAS $______ (amount)

Make check payable to KAS and mail to: KAS, P.O. Box 1443, Ellensburg, WA 98926

Name ____________________________________ Phone __________________________________

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State, ZIP _________________________________ Would you like to receive The Hooter electronically?

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Kittitas Audubon is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. All memberships and donations are tax-deductible.

Membership forms are also available on our Web site: Kittitasaudubon.org.

For membership information contact Membership Chair, Tuck Forsythe ~ forsythe@fairpoint.net

See The Hooter in COLOR on our website ~ http://www.kittitasaudubon.org

Thanks for Renewing!

Lynn B. Sealey

Becky Smith

Ted Mildon

Marlene Fry

Victoria Nesbit & Terry Weiner

Welcome New Member!

Ann M Bergstrom Vintage Barn Owl feeding chicks ~ 19th C.

Upcoming KAS Field Trips

August

1st, Saturday ~ First Saturday Bird Walk, Irene Rinehart Park. A last chance to see some of our summer birds: swallows, Spotted Sandpipers and Yellow Warblers, will be leaving soon – until next year! August species counts on

our walks can be as high as 30. Meet at 8 AM at Irene Rinehart parking lot by the river for a 3-hour walk in the sunshine. Co-led by everyone that shows up!

8th, Saturday ~ Bethel Ridge car trip. This is a full day exploratory trip to get up high and look for late-summer mountain birds. The route is from Hwy 410 across Bethel Ridge to Hwy 12 along Forest Road 1500. Possible stops with short walks are riparian areas above Nile, small

lakes and marshes, Cash Prairie, and Bethel Ridge itself - and a dinner stop at Trout Lodge to look forward to! Steve & Jan lead; please RSVP at 509-933-1179. We’ll need high-clearance 4WD vehicles.

September

6th, SUNDAY ~ First SUNDAY Bird Walk, Irene Rinehart Park. Celebrate Rodeo week-end with a morning walk by the river. Since La-bor Day weekend Saturday is a big day in town, with breakfast and a parade, let’s try a SUN-DAY walk. Still a few vireos, pewees and Os-

preys around before their southward departure. Meet at 8 AM at Irene Rinehart parking lot by the river for a 3-hour walk.

Kittitas Audubon

P.O. Box 1443

Ellensburg WA 98926

The Hooter ~ August 2015 The Newsletter of Kittitas Audubon - http://www.kittitasaudubon.org

THANKS TO KITTITAS COUNTY BUSINESSES SUPPORTING KAS!

Inland Internet, Roslyn ~ donates Internet service for our Website: http://www.kittitasaudubon.org

Old Mill Country Store, Ellensburg ~ Provides a discount on bird seed to KAS members. Get your bird seed here!

June 3rd—pretty good at defending their nest! About 20 days old, they will fledge in a week or less. Thanks to Wayne Erickson for sharing!

American Kestrel chicks near Ellensburg