RSS09/30/08 What's happening
Yakima Herald-Republic
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No wildlife meeting
in Ellensburg after all
This weekend's Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting won't be quite as convenient for Central Washington folks to attend as it was to have been.
The commission's Friday-and-Saturday meeting, originally scheduled for Ellensburg, will be held at the Natural Resources Building in Olympia. So will the Nov. 7-8 meeting, which was originally set for Leavenworth. The decision to keep the meetings in Olympia was to limit travel expenses, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
People in Ellensburg will still be able to monitor the Friday meeting and testify on agenda items via conference call, which is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. in the Fireside Room at the Quality Inn, 1700 Canyon Road.
The commission is scheduled to take action on its proposed rules package for gold panning and mineral prospecting; hear a staff briefing on proposals for 2009-10 sportfishing; approve a proposed land grant in Yakima County; and hear briefings on proposed land exchanges between the WDFW and the Department of Natural Resources.
Bird Alert: Sparrows
start arriving en masse
There's an old familiar song in the air as white-crowned sparrows come pouring into the county from the north. These vociferous new arrivals are a subspecies of white-crowned sparrow known as Gambel's white-crowned sparrow, and are long-distance migrants that breed across subarctic Canada and Alaska.
Visitors to the Yakama Reservation in the Lower Yakima Valley observed around 3,000 of these white-crowned sparrows along Marion Drain Road, where they also noted a late vesper sparrow, over 300 violet-green swallows, and 400 to 500 savannah sparrows.
On a flooded field along South Olden Road, observers sighted western, least and pectoral sandpipers, as well as greater yellowlegs, long-billed dowitchers, killdeer, and Wilson's snipe. At Fort Simcoe State Park, they spotted Lewis's woodpeckers, warbling vireo, orange-crowned warbler, mountain chickadee, black-capped chickadee, chipping sparrow and numerous White-crowned Sparrows.
A riparian strip along Pom Pom Road held warbling vireo, purple finch, cedar waxwing, golden-crowned sparrows and loads of yellow-rumped warblers. The highlight, though, was watching an American kestrel snatch an American pipit in midair.
Dark-eyed juncos, red-breasted nuthatches, yellow-rumped warblers, Wilson's warblers and pine siskins were reported in residential yards and at feeders this week. A Terrace Heights resident watched a sharp-shinned hawk nab and consume a bird in the yard.
Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 248-1963
-- Kerry L. Turley
AROUND AND ABOUT
PASCO PARK WORKSHOP: The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will hold its first workshop towards generating a land-use plan for Pasco's Sacajawea State Park at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Mid-Columbia Library in Kennewick (1620 S. Union).
RAZOR-CLAM DIG: The fall season's first razor-clam dig will run Oct. 16-18 if marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat. Three evening digs are tentatively scheduled all three days at Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks Oct. 16-18, while Long Beach is scheduled for two evening digs Oct. 17 and 18. Digging will be restricted to the hours between noon and midnight.
ON THE CALENDAR
TODAY: The Cascadian's Tuesday hikers meet at 7:30 a.m. at the 40th Ave. Bi-Mart parking lot and carpool from there. Today: Colchuck Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Leavenworth. Next week: Shoe Lake.
WEDNESDAY: Mount Adams Cycling Club holds its weekly 25-mile loop ride to Naches, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Fred Meyer parking lot off 40th Avenue. Info: E-mail anotherjones@earthlink.net.
THURSDAY (OCT. 2): The Cascadians' Pokies will hike to Boulder Cave and beyond. For meeting time and place, call Donna Oliva at 452-3961.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY: The Cascadians play a 10-mile hike to Peggy's Pond on Saturday, with 2,500 feet of elevation gain; and an intermediate hike of Name Ridge on Sunday. For meeting time and place for either hike, call Maurine Peck at 453-4244.
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