Hello fellow birders,

I am new to this list and excited about joining. I moved here from
Oregon last August, so I am still getting used to the new birding
opportunities in Washington. I started working on a landscape-level
wildlife habitat assessment project for vertebrate species on private
forest lands with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife about 6
months ago. I am currently putting together a literature review and
habitat model for cavity-nesting waterfowl in Washington. I have the
model broken into west and east sides of the Cascades.

I am trying to put together some more detailed information on the
distribution of the following species in Washington during the breeding
season (focused on females and broods):

Wood Duck
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Barrow's Goldeneye

I hope to get an idea of elevation and perhaps aquatic habitat (i.e.
fish-bearing rivers) considerations in applying the model. I want to
make sure we apply the model to locations where the species are most
likely to be distributed, and I am concerned that I may need to add an
elevation component to some of the models. For example, the literature
suggests that Barrow's goldeneye tends to nest in tree cavities in high
elevation areas, but it is unclear if adults and broods also use
habitats at lower elevations. This is where I can use some help. We
don't have a lot of information on the distribution of these species.
It would be really helpful if members of the birding community could
provide records of the birds from the breeding season. Please send me
locations where you have seen females and/or broods during the breeding
season. Also, if you have seen any of these species in a tree cavity
and remember the location, tree species, whether the tree was live or
dead, the general size of the tree, and if there was water in close
proximity those would also be helpful notes. I am especially interested
in what tree species they are using for nesting in Washington. I hope I
haven't asked for too much!

Thanks,

Nicole Maggiulli
Olympia, WA
mailto:magginmm at dfw.wa.gov