Subject: Habitat Loss on the Long Beach Peninsula
Date: Jul 23 11:26:19 2001
From: Paul Webster - PWebst25 at concentric.net


Hi Tweets,

Barbara and I made a short visit to the northern part of the Long Beach
Peninsula on Saturday July 22 and Sunday July 23. The scars of
continued development proliferate, a 100 acre parcel on Sandridge Road
has largely been logged off, ditto another large parcel at the
intersection of Joe Johns Rd and the highway north of Ocean Park. A
couple of years ago the better part of the woods north of Oysterville on
Stackpole Rd was levelled up to the state park that borders the
Leadbetter Point area of the Willapa NWR. The property now for sale in
the interior of the peninsula would not be a pleasant place to live: it
is swampy lowland and badly infested with insects. The animals,
including bear, that lived there have been displaced and now roam
through residential areas. Our relatives who live near the south end of
Surfside Estates have seen bear in their yard several times in the last
year.

The homeowners in Surfside Estates closest to the ocean mow down the
grass out to the beach dunes, destroying grassy areas formerly available
to Savannah Sparrows and Western Meadowlarks. I saw a few of the
former, none at all of the latter. Add to that the driving on the
beaches and a picture emerges of a community very much out of touch with
the wildlife that tries to hold on there.

Meanwhile, the migration southward seems well underway, flocks of
Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers move up and down the beaches, and a
flock of 200 Semi-palmated Plovers rested up on the dry sand late
Saturday afternoon and was gone the next morning.

We had limited time for birding, but still logged 38 species at our
relatives' feeders, the ocean beach, and in a two-hour ramble around
Leadbetter Point:

Canada Goose
Great Blue Heron (about 25 on the Willapa Bay side)
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier (one carrying lunch at Leadbetter)
Red-tailed Hawk
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Killdeer (7 seen around Surfside Estates)
Semi-palmated Plover (c. 200 on ocean beach)
Gull sp.
Caspian Tern (about 1 dozen adults and juveniles)
Rock Dove (7 near Surfside Estates -- does someone feed them?)
Rufous Hummingbird
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
American Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Purple Finch
House Finch
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Savannah Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Brown-headed Cowbird

Paul Webster
PWebst25 at Concentric.net