Wildlife Habitat Tour - Where Our Wild Things Are in Shoreline

Wildlife will rule in Shoreline on Saturday, 7/9! 

Red-Breasted Sapsucker seen in Shoreline
2007
ph credit - Steve Schneider

The WOWTA Backyard Wildlife Tour will be featuring habitats in Briarcrest and Ridgecrest Neighborhoods.  And, neighbors are looking forward to a fun filled day with inspiring gardens to see.

The tour will feature yards that are "Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitats", by the National Wildlife Federation and also the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

The project is sponsored by Shoreline's Community Backyard Wildlife Project, created originally by Sustainable Shoreline Education Association. Shoreline has been officially "Certified" as a Community Habitat after succeeding in registering a large number of residences, schools, parks and businesses.

The WOWTA Tour is also supported by a Shoreline Environmental Mini-Grant.

Black-capped Warbler
ph credit - Chris Southwick

Find out how to take the tour by visiting their WOWTA Website or their WOWTA Facebook Page. 

Free admission - Mini learning experiences at each location!

Starting location to pick up maps on day of tour: Briarcrest Elementary, 2715 Northeast 158th Street, Shoreline, WA, 98155

All Participating Habitats are: National Wildlife Federation Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitats

Watching wildlife is fun, and creating a wildlife habitat sanctuary is a healthy way to give back to the Earth. It’s easy!

Please join us at WOWTA's second annual Wildlife Habitat Tour in the city of Shoreline!

WOWTA is a wildlife backyard tour organized by volunteer habitat stewards in the City of Shoreline. We will show you a variety of wildlife habitats and how easy it is to create a wildlife habitat of your own in your backyard, school, and place of worship, business or public building.

• Increase the ease and comfort for you to create or enhance wildlife habitat
• Increase your participation in the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Certification Program
• Celebrate your wildlife accomplishments!

To be involved with the WOWTA Habitat Tour visit our Facebook Page.

WOWTA is a Shoreline Community Wildlife Habitat Tour sponsored by the City of Shoreline 

in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation and organized by volunteer 

Shoreline Habitat Stewards

Here are the four items you need

:Food | Water | Shelter | Place to raise young

Local Pollinator Plants - Featured in NWF Newsletter

Local Volunteer Naturalist Chris Southwick's Photo is featured in the National Wildlife Federation newsletter on Native Plant Pollinators. 

“My favorite native plant is the snowberry. In late spring and early summer, both Anna’s and rufous hummingbirds entertain while drinking nectar from its dainty pinkish flowers and vying for dominance. The round leaves are visually pleasing, and other birds often dart out from under its shelter. In the winter, the small white orbs for which the plant is named gleam in the sun, accent cloudy days and even look pretty in the rain. Since snowberry is a Northwest native, it requires almost nothing from me—nature takes care of its needs.”—Christine Southwick of Shoreline, Washington

Chris is a frequent contributor to Shoreline Area News with excellent articles on birdwatching. She is a board member of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and has done extensive work on bird banding studies for the Shoreline Community Backyard Wildlife Project.

Chris banding a chickadee

Pollinators include many species such as Honey Bees, Butterflies and Moths, Hummingbirds and even bats.

Snowberry is a NW Native and can grow into large patches. It like sun, and wetlands. It is also known as a beautiful winter plant because of it's distinctive white berries that are attractive to birds in winter.

Snowberries
ph credit - Greg Rayborn
KC Native Plant Guide
http://green.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Plant.aspx?Act=view&PlantID=36

The newsletter is featuring Plant Pollinators for this week. It is National Pollinator Week.

Plants for Pollinators: A Collection of Favorites

Wildlife gardeners across the country share photos and descriptions of prized native plants that attract pollinators to their yards (Updated 6/3/2011)

06-07-2010 // Edited by Kelly Senser

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2010/Native-Plants-for-Pollinators.aspx

The fifth annual National Pollinator Week takes place June 20-26, 2011. To celebrate, we asked gardeners across the country who’ve created wildlife-friendly habitats to talk about some of their favorite native plants for attracting bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinating species. Following are the descriptions and images they shared.

Bird Banding - A Personal Account

Chris Southwick - Recording BC Chickadee

Chris Southwick is a local expert and bird banding volunteer. 

Junco is banded and recorded in the birdbook
ph credit - Chris Southwick

© Neil D. Scott

Hairy Woodpecker- Cornell Lab

Townsends Warbler - photo credit Linda Stein

She is implementing "citizen bird science" in her own backyard. She can do this project because of her expert knowledge and a special permit from USGS (United States Geological Survey).  This project is also part of the SSEA Shoreline Community Backyard Habitat Project. It is meant to determine the habits of local bird populations.

Wilsons Warbler - ph credit Chris Southwick

She is a board member of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and participant in Sustainable Shoreline Education Association's Shoreline Community Backyard Wildlife Project, and WOWTA Tour.


This last weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count, a nationwide project to count as many birds as possible by volunteers and millions of birds were counted.


If you're wondering about how the birds stay warm enough in this icy weather, Chris has a little advice to help them. 

 I put out extra suet, a hand warmer on the hummingbird feeder, and scattered some extra seed on the ground for the ground feeders.

Sunday Banding -
Last Sunday banding was at Site#1--CHSO.  The day was dry and still and started out at 30 degrees.  We had to wait about 40 minutes until it became warm enough to band; then we only opened two nets for another hour. Then we opened the third one. We kept a very close watch on the nets all day, and no bird stayed in the nets longer than five minutes.  That means we probably scared some away--we never did get any Spotted Towhees [SPTO's], and only two Song Sparrow [SOSP's].

But, we bagged some really neat birds!  We caught a Second Year [SY] Hairy Woodpecker [HAWO]--Ben  has the scars to prove it.  A gorgeous male Townsend's Warbler[TOWA], a Pine Siskin [PISI], and two Yellow Rumped Warblers,[YRWA] Audubon, one a male, rounded out the extra good birds.
Total:  42 birds!

29 new:

"Mist Nets" erected temporarily to capture
birds for banding. The birds are only
held for a few minutes and then released.

        6 Black-capped Chickadees [BCCH]
        2 Chestnut-backed Chickadees [CBCH]
        1 Bewick's Wren [BEWR]
      14 Oregon Juncos's [ORJU]
        1 Red-breasted Nuthatch [RBNU]
        1 SOSP
        1 TOWA
        1 HAWO
        2 YRWA
13 recaps
        6 BCCH
        3 CBCH
        1 BEWR (twice)
        1 ORJU
        1 SOSP
        1 RBNU

Not bad!  and Mary took some pictures that I'll share when she sends them to me.

Thanks for the help from the volunteers:
Ben Vang-Johnson, Jason Minne, Mark Colombino, Mary Huff, and Susan Ford.
I thought we worked well together.

We also had two copies of the Tabulated Pyle.  I know I really like using it!  Now I don't have to use my "cheat-sheet" note cards.  The Tabular Pyle really lays out the comparisons in such easily and quickly read columns.


Christine Southwick