We lived in Camas-Washougal (Clark County) for eleven years before moving east six miles into Skamania County in 1976. To see a Scrub Jay in the 1970's you had to know where the few local pairs were or drive to the Vancouver Lake/Ridgefield areas. Back in 1977 we tallied 114 Scrub-Jays along with 83 California Quail and 21 Lewis's Woodpeckers in the Vancouver Lake and Ridgefield NWR area of the Sauvie Island CBC. In the mid-1970's, I led a two-day trip of the Columbia Gorge for Seattle Audubon covering Skamania and Klickitat Counties with an overnight stay at Brooks Memorial State Park, north of Goldendale. We saw no Scrub-Jays until we got to Washougal where I had to use a tape at an abandoned prune orchard where I knew there was a pair. Washougal was near the eastern edge of the jays range until the mid 80's. I checked my copy of "Birds of the Pacific Coast" by Willard Ayres Elliot, published in 1923 and this is how he described their distribution: "Pacific Coast region from the Columbia River south to Lower California, and east to, and including, the Sierra Nevada and Cascades. Rare in the northern parts of its range. A few seen in the Willamette valley north to Salem, and rarely to the vicinity of Portland." Despite having numerous feeders at our Skamania County place since 1976 (which is only about a thousand feet higher in elevation the Camas) we did not get a Scrub-Jay here until 1998. I enjoy reading the reports on the expansion of this bird's range along with watching the range changes of other species such as Anna's Hummingbirds, White-tailed Kite, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Black-necked Stilt. Over the years one finds that birding isn't just about finding rarities or adding to a checklist, and like "the canary in the coal mine" birds are a way to watch how change in habitats affects populations and distribution. It wasn't that long ago when Black-necked Stilts didn't breed in Washington and when a White Pelican or Great Egret was a good find in this State. Still waiting for an Eurasian Collered-Dove to show up in this county, Wilson Cady
Skamania County, WA