By Russ Koppendrayer
As usual we got our year list off to a nice start on New Year's Day with the Christmas Bird Count, but the addition of more folks interested in the birding hobby and use of eBird has been valuable for additions to the list as well.
The most unusual bird species of the month was a flock of Common Redpolls found at 7th Avenue Park in Longview on January 17th. This is the second record for Cowlitz County and unlike the 2018 birds that were here and gone, this group seems to be still present at this writing on February 2nd. While they have been seen by numerous birders their presence at the park has been intermittent. The best chance to find them seems to be right after sunrise when they appear in the alder trees between the soccer field and the drainage ditch. Sometimes their stay is only a few minutes and other times they have been seen there for over an hour. We've never figured out where they spend the time away from the park. These birds that nest in northern Canada and Alaska and rarely get this far south in Washington in winter may linger for another month or be gone tomorrow.
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