Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Osprey

Kettle of 30 raptors - Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures or Osprey were soaring and circling above Ordway and then flew West 4PM.

Thurston County Rate of Urbanization and Forest Harvest c. 2002 vs. Rate of Urbanization and Prairie Oaks 2010 Yelm

Link to Google Doc, "Rate of Urbanization and Forest Harvest in Thurston County 1985-2001 (final report Jan. 2002)"

Yelm Loop Stage II Plan


Critical Areas Map - This map upon loading will indicate the large gray area that is labeled YELM. Under the gray area are locations of Prairie Oaks which are obscured on this map from the Thurston County Planning Office. They've been sent an email and this is the Thurston County response:

"... the choice to make cities opaque is very deliberate. Thurston County has no jurisdiction over anything inside city limits, so to avoid misleading citizens we do not show information for the cities in any county maps..."

The Thurston County Critical Areas map used this reference for Oak Prairies

OAK-DOMINANT FOREST OR WOODLAND CANOPY
Description: Greater than 25% crown cover of Oregon white oaks in the main and upper canopy layers and <25%>50% relative cover of natives) and located on glacial outwash, rock outcrop or coastal bluff landforms; verified in the field. Minimum map unit approximately 5 acres for prairies on glacial outwash landforms, 1 acre for balds on rock outcrop landforms or grasslands on coastal bluff landforms. May be smaller if contiguous with other grassland cover types.

SEMI-NATIVE GRASSLAND

Description: Herbaceous vegetation (<25%>


I do not see where it has been determined that the economic impact of this loop would be beneficial vs. ??? (we are in a recession currently and this project is unfunded and seemingly ?)

See also "TRPC 510 Yelm Loop

Yelm Community Blog

Determination of non-significance - "As this is a non-project action, environmental impacts to specific sites will be evaluated at the time the improvement is initiated." (*notes Garry Oaks *no note of impact to prairie *no note of impact to surrounding communities outside of the Urban Growth Area.) See Plants 4.c. & Animals 5. b.

New Pride of the Prairie Opens - no photos of landscaped area.


The mapping provided for Critical Areas that included Oak Prairies in
Thurston County is insufficient. The area identified as YELM obscures
the data the map intended to represent and display. It is a simple
map symbol choice error that can be fixed through choosing a map
symbol for the area of YELM that is not opaque and would allow for the
yellow/green areas of Oak Prairie to be properly identified as the WA
DNR map intended. I requested this yesterday via email to the
Thurston county GIS and planning as well as sending the request to the
WA DNR. (This was intentional per Thurston County mapping see above answer.)
This does not solve the Yelm Loop Stage II issue, however,
that will pass through areas of oaks in Yelm's Urban Growth Area. One
would think, considering that Yelm's motto "Pride of the Prairie" that
they would properly identify Oaks and Prairies within Yelm and its
Urban Growth Area.

* if you are quick.....
you can hit print screen to identify (only briefly) the areas obscured
under the gray area of YELM as the pdf loads. The green and yellow
areas will load first before being oscured by YELM. :)

(1) http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/planning/critical_areas/maps-2010/Prairies.pdf

The Biological Assessment for the Yelm Loop Stage II project was
indicated by the WADOT as complete in December 2007.
I cannot find it online either through City of Yelm, or WADOT website.
It would be an interesting read if found.

This document from City of Yelm indicates that the Draft BA was
completed by WADOT in May 2007.City of Yelm indicated that Garry Oaks
were present in their Environmental Checklist for the Updated
Transportation Plan URL (2) Item 4.c List threatened and endangered
species known to be on or near the site - Garry Oaks. City of Yelm
recognized the Garry Oak as threatened or endangered, but leaves it
obscured in their mapping of Updated Transportation Plans. Oh well,
maybe its just a mapping error.......

(2) https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5dWTSbMv7AYY2VkZjQ4MTEtZWI2ZS00ZjY0LWIwYzYtNWU4NmJjZWY4NGEy&hl=en


I have not noticed anything on the WADOT website with regards to
Biological Assessment content or BA references that include
information about Garry Oaks. And could not find the Yelm Loop Stage
II BA or Draft BA at WADOT.

(3) http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/Biology/BA/BAcontent.htm#ProjectInfo


I wanted to know if the WADNR mapping included information from the
database below.

University of Washington Herbarium

Search Results
Exported from http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/collections/vascular/search.php
May 8th, 2009 at 8:34am PST
Your search query was: Genus = Quercus, Species = garryana
93 records.

Was this information from the herbarium used in the map?

"The historical specimen data from the Burke Museum was not used in the creation of the oak-prairie maps..." WA DNR

One of 93 records included an oak in Yelm and was cited in the year
1891. Is it dead or alive? UNKNOWN

When will the Oak Prairie map be updated?

"We will up-date the oak layer as funding and time allows." WA DNR

City of Yelm does not utilize Thurston County Critical Areas Oaks and Prairie's map originating from WA STATE DNR. City of Yelm informed me that they build customized maps based on city needs.

The City of Yelm does not produce or utilize the critical areas maps you reference, which are produced by Thurston County. I can only speculate that the reason they do not clearly show protected oak stands within the City limits or urban growth area is because the purpose of these maps is to show such areas within the County. The City maintains its own GIS system that we utilize to review development applications and to help in long range planning activities. The City does not publish separate critical area maps, but rather produces custom maps as required for such activities. The data the City utilizes is the best available from Thurston County and Washington State.

Pending Question:
What mapping information is being used by your GIS Dept. to identify
Critical Areas of Oak Prairie's in the City of Yelm and its Urban
Growth areas?

See also: Pending question ignored

Varied Thrush and Robins

Varied Thrush shared the backyard with a Robin yesterday evening. In the last week I have noticed more Gulls flying Northwest. The Juncos and Chickadees are enjoying the ground seed.

Christmas Bird Count December 14 - January 5, 2011

The 111th annual CBC is coming up. You can read more about it here.



I noticed that there were a few oaks planted in the Yelm roundabout, but no one posted a photo of the final landscaping. I suppose they are waiting for spring when the oaks are in bloom.

Oaks and Prairies in Thurston County

Western Scrub Jays not a simple bird

I have been attempting to read a paper on Mast producing trees and
geographical ecology of Western Scrub Jays. The technical analysis is
quite frustrating to interpret given the amount of reference to
numerical analysis of which I am so unfamiliar! In general, it was
said that acorn production benefitted scrub jay population by
increasing reproductive success.

Does this also mean in a year that provides for poor acorn production
that the population of Western Scrub Jay may decline in the year that
follows?


https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5dWTSbMv7AYY2MyMjAyMDMtOGM5Ny00NTg1LWE1MjAtMWM0MWVkZDVkYWE0&hl=en


Another title by Mary K. Coldren (ca. 1997)
http://txtbba.tamu.edu/accounts/scja/scjaacc.html puzzled me in that
it appeared to be questionable if Western Scrub Jays had the habit of
assisting with feeding at the nest. No one knows this? That seemed
odd to me especially since the mapping of the Western Scrub Jay
appears south in Mexico to the North in Western Washington.
Evidently, Western Scrub Jay species differ given recent genetic
findings (2003?). (Surprise to me again, there...) It was said that
the only species known to help at the nest were the Mexican species,
A. c. sumichrasti.

Now I have to find pictures of a Mexican Western scrub jay - A. c.
sumichrasti - and find pics of the other variety of sub-species of
Western Scrub jay. I don't think my Peterson's makes the difference on
p. 284, c. 2008.

The wiki was helpful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Scrub_Jay ___and this
description___ http://www.avianweb.com/westernscrubjays.html __of
differences in sub-species was good reading.

Genetics is so confusing!

"Judging from mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data, it
appears there are two clades, namely a Pacific one west and one east
of the Rocky Mountains; the relationships of populations in the latter
are not resolvable to satisfaction. Thus, it is fairly likely the
Western Scrub-Jay is actually another two distinct species, one
belonging to the Pacific and another one to the eastern lineage(s);
the latter's ancestors apparently gave rise to the Florida Scrub-Jay
as well. Paleogeography of the Rocky Mountains range supports this
scenario.

Inland birds (Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, woodhouseii group and
Sumichrast's Scrub-Jay, sumichrasti group) differ in plumage (paler
blue above, with an indistinct and usually incomplete breast band)
from the coastal birds (California Scrub-Jay, californica group) which
are darker blue above with a strongly defined - but not necessarily
complete - blue breast band. The three groups also differ in ecology
and behavior. The beaks of the California and Sumichrast's groups are
strong and hooked at the tip, as they feed on acorns, whereas the
pinyon-nut feeding Woodhouse's group has a longer, slimmer and
straighter bill with little or no hook.

Each group contains a number of subspecies..."
--http://www.avianweb.com/westernscrubjays.html

It is so much fun to learn something new.

(Notes: "Helping at the nest has been well documented for a closely related species, the Florida Scrub-Jay (A. coerulescens). However, among Western Scrub-Jays, this behavior has only been documented for a population in southern Mexico (A. c. sumichrasti) (Peterson & Burt 1992)."

"Pitelka (1951) and Oberholser (1974) classified the earlier nonbreeding wanderers found in the Panhandle as A. c. woodhouseii, which breed as close as northeast New Mexico and southeast Colorado. However, vocal analysis suggests that the Scrub-Jays that breed in the Panhandle may be more closely allied with A. c. texana of the Edwards Plateau (Coldren 1996). One possible explanation is that birds from the Edwards Plateau traveled north along the Caprock Escarpment to become the breeding year-round residents, while young birds from New Mexico and Colorado sporadically wander altitudinally to become the winter birds reported by Pitelka (1951), Oberholser (1974), and various checklists. Until more research is done, this question remains unanswered."

Text by Mary K. Coldren (ca. 1997)
http://txtbba.tamu.edu/accounts/scja/scjaacc.html November 10, 2010 Accessed, Western Scrub-Jay
* Peterson, A. T. and D. B. Burt. 1992. Pylogenetic history of social evolution and habitat use in the Aphelocoma jays. Anim. Behav. 44:859-866.



"Judging from mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data, it appears there are two clades, namely a Pacific one west and one east of the Rocky Mountains; the relationships of populations in the latter are not resolvable to satisfaction. Thus, it is fairly likely the Western Scrub-Jay is actually another two distinct species, one belonging to the Pacific and another one to the eastern lineage(s); the latter's ancestors apparently gave rise to the Florida Scrub-Jay as well. Paleogeography of the Rocky Mountains range supports this scenario."

"Inland birds (Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, woodhouseii group and Sumichrast's Scrub-Jay, sumichrasti group) differ in plumage (paler blue above, with an indistinct and usually incomplete breast band) from the coastal birds (California Scrub-Jay, californica group) which are darker blue above with a strongly defined - but not necessarily complete - blue breast band. The three groups also differ in ecology and behavior. The beaks of the California and Sumichrast's groups are strong and hooked at the tip, as they feed on acorns, whereas the pinyon-nut feeding Woodhouse's group has a longer, slimmer and straighter bill with little or no hook.

Each group contains a number of subspecies. "Sumichrast's Scrub-Jay" stands apart from the others in its altruistic breeding behavior, unlike the others) stand apart; its remaining races are generally not quite as pale but have washed-out colors with indistincly marked borders. Certainly, some gene flow among these populations occurs, but while the hybrid zone between the californica and woodhouseii groups is very limited." --http://www.avianweb.com/westernscrubjays.html Accessed November 10, 2010. 

"Birds along the Pacific Coast are sharply marked, with a bold blue necklace against white underparts and a distinct brown back. Great Basin birds (called "Woodhouse’s" scrub-jay and sometimes considered to be a different species) are grayer overall, the necklace is less contrasting, and the back patch is grayish blue." --http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Scrub-Jay/id

Hooked bill study in Pac NW includes a flyer from USGS from Andrew C. Revkin November 9, 2010.
More Crow beak deformities Pacific Northwest and Alaskan beak deformities
How USGS can determine that there is an issue with Crow beaks is my question as various authors have indicated that there are slight curves in crow beaks anyway.  I suppose they may be attributing this to other species current issues. However, "On the basis of 186 Northwestern Crows captured at six sites in
Alaska during 2007 and 2008, we estimated the prevalence of beak deformities in adults to be 16.9 ± 5.3%, the highest rate of gross deformities ever recorded in a wild bird population." - October 2010, The Auk 127(4):882−898, 2010.

Yearly totals in Washington from Matt Bartels:

At this point last year, Acorn Woodpecker had been reported only in Klickitat 
County. This year it has been reported in 9 counties [10 if you include this 
week's report from Pacific Co.] 


As for Lewis's Woodpecker & Western Scrub-Jays -- the county level year list 
perspective doesn't seem to reveal anything unusual -- only one more county 
reporting each compared with last year (with a couple more counties like to be 
added in the final update at the end of the year).