Hi Gary and all,

I was recently talking to Bob Kuntz about the North Cascades National
Park Service Complex bird checklist since he's the person who
maintains it for the park. He informed me that the list does includes
the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, so this would this would
include the County Line Ponds, Agg Ponds, Newhalem, the town of
Diablo, Diablo Lake, and Ross Lake in additional to the areas that are
more difficult to reach for the average birder. I would think this is
the same area that should be reported to Washington Birder.

A map of the park, including the recreation area, is here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Map_of_North_Cascades_National_Park.png

Checklist:
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/chekbird/r1/ncascade.htm

Ryan




>> From: Gary Bletsch <garybletsch at yahoo.com>
>> Date: Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 7:25 AM
>> Subject: [Tweeters] "Washington Birder" listing question
>> To: tweeters tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>>
>>
>> Dear Tweeters,
>>
>> I think I may have asked this question here before, but here goes.
>>
>> The categories in the "Washington Birder" listing report sheet include
>> "N Cascades N. P."
>>
>> I have gone back and forth in my mind, as to whether this includes
>> just the Park, proper, or the two recration areas. I'd love to hear
>> what other
>> Tweeters think about this--do we consider this a list for the Park,
>> proper, or do we include Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake
>> Chelan National Recreation Area as well? Ross Lake NRA in particular
>> includes some excellent birding areas that are easily reached by
>> car--County Line Ponds, Newhalem Ponds, Newhalem itself, Diablo,
>> Colonial Creek Campground, and so forth.
>>
>> Besides myself, only seven other birders have lists shown on
>> "Washington Birder" for this Park, as of last year. One of those is of
>> course the late Patrick Sullivan, with 107 species. I haven't gotten
>> around to asking Howard Armstrong about his list, which stands at 93.
>> Unlike most birders, Howard has spent enormous amounts of time in the
>> remote areas of the Park, during his climbing days, so his 93 might
>> actually be within the Park itself.
>>
>> Here is a link to the Park Service's map: http://www.nps.gov/noca/index.htm .
>>
>> As the map shows, there are very, very few places where the average
>> tourist can get into the Park itself without a hike. Most of those
>> hikes cross serious mountain terrain. The single easy exception is
>> Cascade Pass, where one can drive right into the Park. One could also
>> take a boat to Stehekin and go up a road from there, leading into the
>> Park. As far as I know, that's it--the rest of the vast Park area can
>> be reached only by a hike--and most of those hikes are long,
>> difficult, wilderness treks. Some of them require a combination of a
>> boat ride and a hike!
>>
>> Driving up State Highway 20, between Marblemount and Newhalem, there
>> is a big new sign for North Cascades National Park, complete with faux
>> glacier. I'm sure that many visiting birders passing this way assume
>> that they are in the park, but they're actually "only" in the Ross
>> Lake NRA.
>>
>> Here is a link to the Park's bird checklist:
>>
>> http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/chekbird/r1/ncascade.htm
>>
>> It is interesting to note that this checklist includes the two
>> Recreation Areas. This seems to answer the question I've posed, but it
>> would be interesting to hear whether Tweeters take the same approach.
>>
>> If I get some replies to this query, I'd be happy to send back a
>> summary of the results to Tweeters.
>>
>> Yours truly,
>>
>> Gary Bletsch
>>
>> Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA
>>
>> garybletsch at yahoo.com
>>
>> "Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will
>> ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir
>> das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf
>> Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter
>> immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer,
>> miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und
>> lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"
>>
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