Subject: [Tweeters] Camas BBS
Date: Jun 23 22:19:38 2007
From: Wilson Cady - gorgebirds at juno.com


On Saturday, June 23rd, Richard Hamby and I ran the Camas
Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) for the 30th consecutive year. While others
have posted accounts of their BBS listing the sightings of interesting
birds we can only talk about what was once there.
The Camas route (# 89-024) starts about four miles due north of
Lacamas Lake in an area of small farms and scattered rural residences.
This area has changed little in the past thirty years, it is only when
the route goes along the east shore of Lacamas Lake that the first major
changes are apparent. The west shore which once was the site of summer
home of the married children of the Ledbetters and Pittocks. The
Ledbetters started the paper mill here to supply the Pittock's with paper
to print their Oregonian newspaper. The family had built what was the
second largest log building in the world on the lakeshore in a old-growth
forest that was known locally as the "Black Forest". The forest is gone
and the west shore is now covered in upscale homes. There are four stops
along the lakeshore where we can enjoy the early morning before the joy
leaves our endeavor.
From stop number 17 out of fifty we enter what was the fastest
growing section of the second fastest growing county in the United
States. The shield volcano, Prune Hill, in Camas has gone from Prune
Orchards, hayfields and a Drive-in Theater to city lots covered in homes.
As we continue towards the route's end north of the city of Orchards we
enter the "silicon forest' with stops in front of Sharps Electronics and
Hewlett-Packard before we hit 164th Avenue. This is where the biggest
changes have occurred, what was once a two-lane country road through
mint, strawberry and wheat fields has become a major thoroughfare lined
with shopping centers, fast food restaurants (and some pretty good dining
spots too), offices and assorted mini-malls. At stop #31 which was once
the driveway to an abandoned farmhouse where we listened to Red-tailed
Hawks, Ring-necked Pheasants, and Western Meadowlarks, I now stand in the
parking lot of a Burgerville on the corner of a Fred Meyer's store there
were two crows, a White-crowned Sparrow and a Brewer's Blackbird.
The last two miles of this route reenters a semi-rural
residential area where the few remaining fields are quickly being
converted to subdivisions.
It has been an interesting experience to watch an area change so
much and have a measuring tool (the survey) to measure that change. The
other memorable thing has been to observe how the ornamental plantings
around the homes at the various stops have grown and matured over the
years. While no longer a task that I look forward to this route provides
good information about what the effects of growth are on our avian
community.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA