Today I led a Black Hills Audubon field trip to the Chehalis River
Discovery Trail in Centralia. The flood waters caused quite extensive
damage, making most of the trail impassable. Washouts, fallen trees, and
contaminents from septics shortened our trip on the trail. On the
brighter side, we had sunny skies and a pond full of water with lots of
waterfowl. A short walk back up the road to the slough produced even
more birds. At the pond we saw lots of Northern Pintails, American
Wigeons, Green-winged Teal, Common Goldeneyes, Mew Gulls, 1 Ring-billed
Gull, 1 California Gull, Black-bellied Plovers, and Dunlins. Scanning
the fields we saw, 3 Northern Harriers, 2 Bald Eagles, and 1 American
Kestrel. During our short walk on the trail we saw, Yellow-rumped
Warblers, Golden-crowned Sparrows, 2 Scrub Jays, Western Meadowlarks,
and 2 Savannah Sparrows. A Merlin made an appearance when we were at the
parking lot, and later when we walked the road. Along the road and at
the slough we saw, 3 Downy Woodpeckers, 1 Mourning Dove, 1 White-crowned
Sparrow, 5 Wood Ducks, 1 Lesser Scaup, and 3 River Otters.
Even though it was dissapointing not to be able to continue down the
trail, our group did tally 41 species in an area that was completely
under water just four days prior. The parking lot has a small section
that was beat up, which is not bad since it was under 4ft of water. The
trail will be completely closed until it is cleaned up, and this could
take several months.

Dave Hayden
Centralia, WA
dtvhm AT nwrain.com