Leadbetter Point CBC is CANCELLED for December 20, 2008



I hope you will all enjoy doing something else this Saturday, because I am
cancelling the Leadbetter Point Christmas Bird Count for this year.


The weather forecasts are uniformly pessimistic about the day of the NOW
CANCELLED count and the days surrounding it:

Naselle / Rosburg area: Friday, high 25, low 13; Saturday, high 29, low
22; Sunday, 34 & 27, with 90% chance of snow.

Longview: Friday, high 22, low 13; Saturday, high 27, low 20; Sunday, 29 &
25, with 90% chance of snow.

Long Beach: Friday, high, 27, low 14; Saturday, Snow, high 31, low 22,
with 20% chance of precip.; Sunday, Rain, 34 & 27, with 90% chance of precip.


Since nearly all participants must travel through our area to even reach
the count circle and to get back home again, I feel that the prospect for
ice and/or snow on the roads is too likely for us to ignore it. (Even
Astoria, and as you see above the Long Beach peninsula, usually buffered
from the snow and ice by their proximity to abundant water, are expecting
an onslaught this weekend.)

If you want to travel this weekend, it would be against any advice I would
give you, but the only control I have over that is that there will not be
travel for this CBC, because it is cancelled.

The local newspapers are full of accounts of unfortunate people who had
accidents on the highways of the area. I would not want any of you to be
among them, and for sure not because of a sense of loyalty to the CBC
tradition.

As if I needed any more reinforcement for this cancellation, I see that all
of our area schools cancelled classes today (Thursday), and some have
already announced closures for Friday. Many meetings, adult education
classes, and other events for the rest of the week and this weekend have
been cancelled already.

Thanks for all your support in this endeavor so far; I have put in a lot of
time & effort on this too over the past couple of months, and I regret
having to not hold the event; however, as I mentioned above, I would regret
it inestimably more if someone were to be in an accident due to the bad
road conditions between us and the CBC circle. So, please stay home, stay
warm and enjoy the Holiday Season.


Best Wishes,
Alan Richards / Willapa Hills Audubon Society CBC Coordinator