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.
Join us for the Christmas Bird Count All are welcome!
Sunday, Sunday, Jan. 4
The Christmas Bird Count—the nation’s longest-running community science bird project—will be held on Sunday, Jan. 4. Please join us in this annual effort to gather population data on birds in our region, information that is critical to conservationists, scientists, policymakers, and others working to protect birds.
Vashon’s annual census will be led by Adria Magrath, a veteran birder and former VBA board member who oversaw last year’s bird count. She’s still in need of volunteers to join teams that will count birds in designated areas on Vashon and a portion of the Kitsap Peninsula. The field teams are out for all or part of the day, no matter the weather. All are welcome to join, even people who are beginner birders. Adria will match less-experienced birders with experienced ones—there’s a role for anyone who’s interested! Volunteers can also support the census by counting birds in their backyard (called a feeder watch, though you don’t have to have a feeder to participate).
New this year will be a potluck the following Sunday, Jan. 11, from 4 to 6 p.m. Location and other details to be announced later.
If you’d like to join a team, please email Adria at adriamagrath@gmail.com. And huge thanks to Adria for agreeing to oversee this important event for the second year in a row!
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
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, Sept. 13
- Thursday, Sept. 18
- Thursday, Sept. 25
- Thursday, Oct. 2
- Saturday, Oct. 11
- Thursday, Oct. 16
- Thursday, Oct. 23
- Thursday, Oct. 30
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.
Photo: Jody Pritchard at work in Paradise Valley
Vashon Bird Alliance 