Native Plant Course - Stillwaters Environmental Center is offering a four week class on native plants and their uses in garden, landscape and shoreline, brought to you by WSU Extension. The class will be held four Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting March 9th. The cost is $80 for the series, or $25 per class, and includes materials and snacks. To register, contact Joleen Palmer at 360-297-2876 or Joleen@stillwatersenvironmentalcenter.org

Flip-Flop Lemon Drop Girls Night Out Saturday, February 6th, 3 - 6 p.m. at Kiana Lodge. $47 per person; Group of 4 for $180 All proceeds benefit the West Sound Wildlife Shelter Join us for a girl’s night out! Put together a group of girlfriends for a fabulous afternoon of indulgence at the beautiful Kiana Lodge. If you want to, decorate your flip-flops in advance, bring them to the event, and win some stunning prizes in the flipflop fashion show! Event Includes: - a fabulous flip flop pageant - lemon drops and tasty treats served by firefighters from the 2010 Burn Foundation Calendar - shopping at the silent auction - free activities (massages, aura readings, henna tattoos, tarot card readings, mini-makeovers, and more!) - raffles with prizes like a $250 gift certificate to Central Market Your $47 donation covers drinks, food and fun. Buy your ticket online at http://www.westsoundwildlife.org/ or call Elsa at 206-855-9057 x5.

Christmas Bird Count:

view our CBC web page with info from this year.

Port Susan Snow Goose & Birding Festival, February 20- 21 in Standwood. 360-629-6110; www.snowgoosefest.org.

Birding cruise around Bainbridge Isalnd with George Gerdts, Sunday, March 21. Leave dock 10 a.m., return about 1:30 p.m. Cost $65. Call 206-842-8138 or email geopandion@aol.com.

Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, March 26 – 28 in Othello. www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org

Olympic BirdFest, April 9-11, in Sequim. followed by San Juan Islands Birding Cruise, April 11 – 13. 360-681-4076; www.olympicbirdfest.org

Gray’s Harbor Shorebird Festival, April 30 – May 2 in Hoquiam. 800- 303-8498; www.shorebirdfestival.com

Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest, May 12-16 in Leavenworth. 509-548- 5807; www.leavenworthspringbirdfest.com

Audubon Adventures is an award-winning environmental education program produced by the National Audubon Society for children in the fourth and fifth grades. Designed by professional environmental educators, the program presents engaging, scientifically accurate information about birds, other wildlife, habitats and conservation. It meets core elementary curriculum standards in Earth Science, Language Arts and Civics. Audubon Adventures comes as a classroom kit serving up to 32 students. Each kit contains a teacher’s manual and covers four topics, with handouts. Kitsap Audubon provides these kits free of charge. Last year KAS donated Audubon Adventures kits to 40 subscribing teachers in the Kitsap County Public Schools. Each kit costs us $ 42.95 ($37 plus $5.95 postage). Multiplied by 40, this is a big part of the KAS annual budget. Help us defray the cost of this program by contributing to the general Audubon Adventures program or by sponsoring your child’s or grandchild’s classroom or the classroom of your choice! Make your check payable to Kitsap Audubon Society and mail it to KAS, PO Box 961, Poulsbo, WA 98370. Specify that your contribution is for Audubon Adventures. Should you have any questions, contact Fay Linger, Education Chair, 360-297-3855 or ernieandfay@centurytel.net

Grounds of Change: Did you know that you can protect important bird habitat, promote healthy forests, and support the livelihood of farmers with one cup of coffee? Coffee is the second most widely-traded commodity in the world, behind oil, and it should come as no surprise that coffee drinkers in the U.S. account for the majority of coffee consumption. What would we all do without our morning caffeine buzz to get us going? So what does coffee have to do with birds? Much of the globe’s tropical waistline (between 20˚N and 20˚S latitude) provides the ideal climate and soils for coffee production. In the Americas, this is the same region that our migratory birds visit annually. Traditionally, coffee shrubs were planted under the diverse tropical forest canopy and were allowed to mature slowly to produce the best beans. However, with ever-increasing demand and global poverty, new, sun-tolerant species allow for higher yields on a shorter timeline. The majority of coffee sold today is of the robusta variety and is grown under direct sunlight in the open fields of Vietnam, Brazil and beyond. However, growing coffee quickly comes at a price. Habitat is removed, soil gives way to erosion, and more chemicals are added to the environment to ward away pests. Birds and other wildlife are forced to find new homes, though many habitat specialists simply can’t adapt. The shade coffee plantations of Latin America provide irreplaceable habitat for resident and neotropical migratory bird species. Local farmers also rely on these plantations for security, and various cash crops may be interspersed with coffee plants. As a consumer, your choice to purchase shade-grown coffee will help guarantee a future for coffee farmers while protecting healthy habitat for wildlife, including birds. When purchasing coffee, look for the Bird Friendly® certification seal to know that your coffee is shade-grown, or ask your roaster to learn more. Visit www.shadecoffee.org for more information. Lindsey Edwards, Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign

Band-tailed Pigeon Telemetry--Mary Hrudkaj
Late July a posting on Tweeters from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center in California asked if anyone knew where bandtailed pigeons could be found regularly. They were putting on satellite transmitters to monitor the
migration patterns so that the birds’ wintering areas could be protected.
I replied since I, at that time, had about three dozen band-tailed pigeons coming in daily to feed. On August 4, two gentlemen in a government truck arrived around 6:30 a.m. High tech met low tech as they set out wood and wire traps activated by a pull to some fishline. The traps were baited with cracked corn. Birds came and went but didn’t go under the traps. A sharp-shinned
hawk patrolling the area kept all the birds unsettled while it played tag with the jays. The morning passed with no pigeons getting caught, thanks to the hawk. One trap was left set so I could use it in case the pigeons returned. I was to call
the guys to return but, thanks to the hawk, good looks were all we got that day. The traps were closed for the night to prevent other animals or birds inadvertently getting caught.

Sunday morning arrived and I could again hear the sharpshinned in the area. Around 7:00 the fellows returned and the traps
were reset. The hawk decided too many people were around and left. Around 8:15 three pigeons entered one trap and were caught. They were transferred to a smaller holding cage to prevent them from harm while being handled, and the
cage was covered to reduce stress. Throughout the entire process of catch, handling, tagging and release, the health and well-being of the birds were foremost in mind. Each bird was weighed, sexed (males are a bit more purple in
summer than females), measured and aged before having transmitters attached. All three birds tagged were males and heavy for their size, probably from eating daily food I put out. The satellite transmitters were about 1 ½ by ¾ inch and had a wire antenna angling up from the end. The transmitters were solar powered and had been left in the sun to activate prior to attaching
to the birds. The transmitters were attached by looping Teflon tape (used to reduce friction on the feathers) under the wings and across the breast then tied and the knot secured forming a harness of sorts. The Teflon tape is designed
to erode over a couple years so the birds do not have to be recaught to remove the device. One bird’s harness was a bit misaligned, causing the bird to not want to move about, so it was redone, taking over an hour total for harnessing this bird alone. After letting the birds calm they were hand released.

The satellite data is updated every 2-3 days. Anyone can monitor it by going to the Western Ecological Research Center’s website: www.werc.usgs.gov. Click on “Satellite Telemetry,” then choose “Band-tailed Pigeons.” Near the top of the next page click on “Maps.” The birds tagged at my place outside of Belfair
are numbers 75691, 75701 and 75702. About 15 birds have been tagged. One of my birds is now in the Vancouver, WA, area and the other two are in
the northwestern hills of California and have been there for several weeks. Someone recently asked me if bandtailed pigeons migrate. The answer is yes and no. Some do and some don’t. We always find some in the Kitsap CBC. Why they don’t migrate and others do is anyone’s guess.