Hi Tweets,

Three of us were birding in and around Wanapum State Park on Sep 27 and set up our scopes up on a bluff overlooking the Wanapum Pool. We were AMAZED by the number of waterfall in the pool below us. Not having ever seen numbers like this, we did our best to count the whole group and then tried to sort out a species count. We came up with a total of about 16,000 waterfowl, about half (8,000) of which were scaup (it was difficult to see most of the thousands of scaup with clarity, but of the many we could ID, they were lesser scaup), followed by coots (6,000) and then other species (Ring-necked Duck (hundreds), Ruddy Duck (hundreds), Horned Grebe (at least 50), Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Redhead (10), Common Loon (4). Since we were wondering if our count was a realistic one, Margaret sent an email inquiry this morning to the Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife. She got the following quick reply:


You?re hired! Your count is very realistic! I?ve attached a quick query of our recent scaup (SCAU) and coot (AMCO) counts for the area. Thanks,

Rich S. Finger
Ephrata District Wildlife Biologist
Washington Dept. Fish and Wildlife
1550 Alder St. NW
Ephrata, WA 98823

If anyone wants to see the "quick query" report Rich Finger sent of their recent scaup and coot counts for the area, let me know and I'll forward the table to you.

This was a great exercise in Citizen Science!

Sharon Aagaard
Bellevue, WA
scormieraa001 at hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141665/direct/01/