Calendar of events

Restoring habitat in Paradise Valley

VBA volunteers regularly meet at Paradise Valley, where they’re working to maintain and restore habitat in partnership with the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust. The crew removes invasive plants and installs native trees and shrubs, critical work that addresses climate change (trees store carbon), improves water quality, and provides food and shelter for our resident and migratory birds. And they have a great time doing it together. Please consider joining this hardy crew!

During summer’s nesting season, they gathered every other week, but they’ve now resumed their weekly schedule.

Time: 10 a.m. to noon (Thursdays or Saturdays)

Upcoming dates:

  • Saturday, Jan. 10
  • Thursday, Jan. 15
  • Thursday, Jan.  22
  • Thursday, Jan. 29

Meeting place: Judd Creek Loop Trail trailhead, on the east side of 111th Ave. S.W. in Paradise Valley. Parking is along the road. Note: This is not the Kneeshaw Trailhead parking lot, which is further north and on the west side of 111th. If you arrive late, follow the signs to the worksite.

Tools needed: Bring your own shovels and loppers, if possible. A few extra tools will be on hand, but bringing your own helps assure we have enough for everybody!

Attire: Please bring your own work gloves. Wear sturdy shoes and dress for the weather. Long pants and long sleeved shirts are strongly recommended.

Questions? Contact Jim Evans at frangula54@gmail.com.

The Paradise Valley Preserve is the property of the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust. All of the Vashon Bird Alliance’s activities on the preserve are planned out in consultation with land trust stewardship staff and in accordance with the Paradise Valley Preserve management plan.

Come birding with us!

The Vashon Bird Alliance hosts bird walks every third Saturday. Most walks begin at 9 a.m. at the Ober Park parking lot—participants carpool from there. Please join us!

Join Ginny Lohr for our January 17th bird walk. Ginny, a participant in our CBC, will  lead us on a walk from Ober Park. We should find many species, including song birds that are actually singing

Join Sherry Bottoms and Sue Trevathan on February 21st as we walk on the 950am Tahlequah ferry and bird the passage, using the opportunity to study our three different cormorants, the variety of gulls, and any alcids that pop up.  On the Pt. Defiance side we will walk the south waterfront trail looking for ducks, geese, and other birds.  We’ll catch the 1250am ferry back to Vashon. Dress appropriately for the weather, bring fluids and a lunch for the ride home.  We will cancel in case of heavy rain. !

Photo: Anna’s Hummingbird, by Karen Fuller

ON THE WING

A special exhibit at
Outstanding in its Field Gallery

Opening Reception
5-8 p.m. | Saturday, Sept. 6

Outstanding in its Field Gallery will hold “On the Wing,” a show featuring 14 artists and their bird-inspired creations, from Sept. 6 to Sept. 28. A portion of the show’s profits will go to the Vashon Bird Alliance. 

The opening reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6, where many of the artists will be present. Enjoy small bites, lemonade, and live music by Gus Reeves. The gallery is located at 10524 S.W. 188th Street.

Featured artists include Janeen Bramwell, pastels; Jeanne Marie Thomas, watercolors; Tara Brenno, ceramics; Barbara Gustafson, baskets; Jim Diers, photography; Margi Amstrup, painter; Chuck Bonsteel, raku; Sue Hardy, copper plate intaglio etchings; Charlotte Masi, mixed media; William Cleaver, mixed media; Janis McElroy, art cards; Julia Gombert, jewelry; Jude Boardman, painter; and White Hart Art, bas relief sculpture.

A huge thank you to Lindsay Hart, the gallery’s owner, for her enthusiastic support of birds and the Vashon Bird Alliance!

Hummingbird image – watercolor by Jeanne Marie Thomas
Inset image – copper plate intaglio etchings by Sue Hardy

Artfully designed signs urge protection of
Quartermaster Harbor

Two richly detailed signs depict the disappearance of Western Grebes from Quartermaster Harbor—triggered by the loss of herring, a staple in the bird’s diet—and urge residents in the bay’s large watershed to take steps to protect it.

Copy for the signs was written by Rayna Holtz, a Vashon naturalist and former VBA board president, and designed by Sandra Noel, a well-known nature illustrator. Sue Trevathan, also a former VBA board president and long-time coordinator of the region’s Christmas Bird Count, and Steve Hunter, VBA’s current president, worked with Rayna and Sandra to bring the two signs to completion.

The two signs—recently erected at Dockton Park and Jensen Point—were created with funds from VBA and the Vashon Beach Naturalists program. Public agencies contributed support as well, including King County and the state Department of Natural Resources.

The grebes’ decline was precipitous. In 2001, Vashon’s wintering Western Grebes numbered between 1,500 and 2,000, making the bay such a critical stronghold in Puget Sound that the National Audubon Society named Quartermaster Harbor an Important Bird Area. But as herring declined, so did the grebes. During the 2007 Christmas Bird Count, birders counted 366 grebes, the next year a mere 17. Since 2012, Sue said, no one in the Christmas Bird Count has counted a Western Grebe on Quartermaster Harbor.

The state lists the Western Grebe, one of six grebe species in Washington, as a “species of greatest conservation need,” with a moderate-to-high sensitivity to climate change. Researchers have detected a southern shift of the birds during the winter months; they now overwinter in California, according to WDFW.

The bird—heavily dependent on fish for its diet—faces numerous threats, WDFW says, from water drawdowns for agriculture to boater activity that destroys nests. Plus this, according to a WDFW webpage devoted to the bird: “Prey base appears to have declined in the Salish Sea.”

An article in this week’s Beachcomber tells more about the effort to create these two signs. An image of the sign, as well as a long bibliography in support of the team’s research, can be found on VBA’s website.

Above – Sue Trevathan and Steve Hunter at the Dockton Park site
Inset – Rayna Holtz at the Jensen Point site