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.
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
Chris Southwick, a volunteer "bird bander" with the Puget Sound Bird Observatory Caught, banded and released a Red-Breasted Sapsucker in the Briarcrest neighborhood this weekend. She also teaches volunteers how to monitor local birds with the bird banding program and works with the Shoreline Backyard Wildlife Project to help Shoreline become a "certified" City with the National Wildlife Federation. Shoreline is very close to the goal of certification now. You can help by certifying your yard
by contacting the project at - http://www.sustainableshoreline.org/WildlifeHabitat.html
Interesting fact from Bird web: Sapsuckers get their name fromtheir foraging strategy, which consists of drilling neat horizontal rows of holes into tree trunks and then returning to those holes later to feed on the running sap and the insects attracted to it.
Also significantly, volunteer advocates, Ruth Williams and Janet Way observed many small fish in the channel of a tributary of Thornton Creek at Park #6 entering the Beaver Pond. The Channel in question flows from the site of Hubbard Homestead Park. The Great Blue Heron was also sighted again feasting on many tasty bites there. Volunteers will attempt to get a photo soon that shows these fish. Fish Habitat is an extremely important issue in Thornton Creek Watershed. This creek, which is the largest watershed in Seattle and Shoreline is home to at least 5 species of salmonids. The Hubbard Homestead Park site is controversial currently, because a spring and wetland were to be part of the design for the park. Mr Bruce Hubbard discovered a map showing the "stream" labeled. Citizens point to this stream labeling as signifcant to the future of the promised design.
Red-breasted Sapsuckers are similar in appearance to the closely related Red-naped Sapsuckers, but they have red heads and breasts. Their upperparts are black barred with white, and they have a prominent white stripe across each black wing. They lack the black breast-band of the other two sapsucker species found in Washington, and they have yellowish bellies. Males and females look much alike. Juveniles are mottled brown but have white wing-stripes like the adults.
The dense mixed and conifer forests typical
of western Washington are the preferred
breeding habitat of Red-breasted Sapsuckers.
They are often found in mature and old-growth
forests, but will breed in second growth as long
as there are some large nesting trees. They can
also be found in riparian habitats with large
cottonwoods.
Sapsuckers get their name from their foraging
strategy, which consists of drilling neat horizontal
rows of holes into tree trunks and then returning
to those holes later to feed on the running sap
and the insects attracted to it. Unlike most
woodpeckers, they forage in healthy trees
and can actually kill a tree if they drill too
many sap-holes around its trunk, although
this is quite uncommon.
The main food of Red-breasted Sapsuckers is
tree sap. They also eat some insects and fruit.
They take more insects during the nesting
season, and they feed insects to their young.
Much is not well known about the nesting
behaviors of Red-breasted Sapsuckers.
They form monogamous pairs, and both
members of the pair excavate the nest cavity.
Nests are usually built in deciduous trees, such
as aspen, alder, cottonwood, or willow, but they
may also be in firs or other conifers. The nest
is often high, 50-60 feet off the ground. Both
sexes typically incubate the 5 to 6 eggs for 12
to 13 days. Both feed the young, which leave
the nest after 25 to 29 days. The young are
probably dependent on the parents for ten
days or so thereafter. Red-breasted Sapsuckers
typically raise a single brood each year.
Red-breasted Sapsuckers are the least migratory
of Washington's sapsuckers and the only sapsuckers
that regularly occur in Washington during the winter.
If the weather turns cold enough for sap to freeze,
they may descend into the lowlands or move out to
the outer coast to find food.
Red-breasted Sapsuckers are considered a keystone species, because many other species use the sap
wells they drill. Their numbers may have declined
because of habitat degradation, but these sapsuckers
are still fairly numerous, and the Breeding Bird
Survey has identified a non-significant annual increase in Washington since 1966. In the Cascades they
hybridize with Red-naped Sapsuckers.
Red-breasted Sapsuckers are common breeders
in appropriate habitat west of, and just beyond,
the Cascade crest, to the outer coast. They are
rare breeders in conifer forests east of the
Cascades and may be rare breeders in residential
areas or city parks in western Washington.
Wintering birds can be found in the western
Washington lowlands. They are extremely rare
winter visitors to eastern Washington.
Click here to visit this species' account and breeding-season distribution map inSound to Sage, Seattle Audubon's on-line breeding bird atlas of Island, King, Kitsap, and Kittitas Counties.
• Douglass Squirrel sighted in Briarcrest by Chris Southwick Feb 2012
• Cottontail Rabbit sighted in Briarcrest Neighborhood Nov 1st. Did not look like a domestic "bunny!"
• Coyote spotted in Paramount Park Meadow, just sittin'. 3/11
• Varied Thrush sighted in Paramount Park Neighborhood 2 & 3/11
• Townsends Warbler photographed in Highland Terrace Neighborhood 1/11
• Blackheaded Grossbeak sighted near Paramount Park last Fall
• Great Blue Heron sighted at Hidden Lake in Boeing Creek basin
• Barred Owl sighted in Thornton Creek Park #1 near Jackson Park, 8/10
• White crowned sparrow identified in Highland Terrace/Aurora Square neighborhood
• Blackheaded Grossbeak sighting in Hillwood neighborhood
• Two Raptors sighted in Shoreline. Osprey and Merlin have been documented at Ronald Bog and Echo Lake respectively this summer (2010)
• Pacific Chorus Frog heard in Shoreline's Hillwood Neighborhood
• Three types of warblers identified in Briarcrest neighborhood in May and June
• Red Breasted Sapsucker Banded in Briarcrest Neighborhood of Shoreline
• 4/16 - Mating pair of Pileated Woodpecker seen yesterday in Paramount Park. They were utilizing some "snags" (dead trees) which were placed in the wetland restoration area with a KC Wildlife Habitat Grant in 2002. The Pileated Woodpecker is considered a "Priority Species" by WDFW. The pairs mate for life and make their nests in cavities they excavate in dead trees with their sharp beaks. They eat insects and grubs they find in the dead wood.
• Great Blue Heron seen today at Thornton Creek Par #6 eating two fish in five minutes. It's interesting to note that it took many years to get the City of Seattle to realize that there are fish living in Thornton Creek, only 2-3 blocks from Northgate. In the design of the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel at Northgate, fish passage was a non-negotiable issue. The Great Blue Heron is considered a Priority Species by WA State.
• River Otter Spotted at Kruckeberg Botanic Garden! The Garden does not have a river running through it, so we were startled to see what appeared to be a river otter (Lutra canadensis) passing through recently. River otters live in rivers, streams, and coastlines. With water repellant fur and webbed feet, these playful members of the weasel family are designed for swimming and catching fish, their main food. However, they often wander far from water in search of a mate or new living area, surprising the unsuspecting staff of botanic gardens. The Kruckeberg Garden is near the headwaters of Storm Creek.
• Wood Ducks seem to be happily proliferating at Thornton Creek Park Six near Northgate. With the help of stewards, beavers and other species, habitat is improving at this little "wild" urban paradise. Despite a jungle of invasives there is a wetland habitat (improved by beavers) that suits the Wood Ducks. Today, 13 were sighted in the branches of a fallen cottonwood. 13 Wood Ducks Today!
• Beaver families have been moving in and building habitat around our urban watersheds, especially into Thornton Creek. Here is a photo a "creative engineer" naturally utilizing the creek corridor at Thornton Creek Park #6, which is a wetland waiting for better "engineering".
• At least 40 bird species have been sighted at Paramount Park over the last 20 years and more. The Barred Owl is one visitor who is watching over us.
• 12 birds at Greenlake today including Western Grebe, Bufflehead, Great Blue Heron and Hooded and Red-breasted Merganser
Janet proudly served on Shoreline City Council, from 2005-2009 and is an outspoken, current environmental and preservation activist residing in Shoreline, WA. Over the past 20 years, she and many other partners have succeeded in many remarkable accomplishments for the environment and community. On the City Council, she helped spearhead many environmental achievements for Shoreline, giving Shoreline a "green city" profile. She is a founding member of Paramount Park Neighborhood Group, Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund (which advocated for and succeeded in "daylighting" Thornton Creek at Northgate), South Woods Preservation Group, Lake Ballinger Forum, Sno-King Economic Gardening group and other efforts. She serves on the Advisory Board of Friends of Fircrest, and is a member of Shoreline Chamber of Commerce and Shoreline Solar Project.
Janet holds an Art degree from Moore College of Art, Phila, and runs an arts business for 30 yrs. She also is sales rep for Appel Farms dairy at Seattle Farmers Markets.
Janet and her wonderful, patient husband, Alan Worthington of 32 yrs have two grown sons, Travis and Spencer.
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