President's Message-By John Day

Dear Members and Friends of Skagit Audubon Society,

 A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch in our living room when some movement outside the window caught my eye. It turned out to be a pair of Bushtits, birds we have seen only occasionally here in the past, typically as small flocks moving quickly through in the late summer and fall.  These two were fluttering around the Tibetan prayer flags that hang across the south side of our house, picking the loose threads from their fraying edges.  At around the same time, they started showing up at our suet feeder.  Over the next couple of days, I noticed that when they left the vicinity of the feeder, they always flew off to the west, so one evening I headed out that way to investigate.

I spotted the pair again feeding in the newly emerged foliage of a Japanese larch that stands around two hundred feet west of our house, on the other side of an intermittent stream and a thicket of willow and red osier dogwood.  Ducking below the lower branches of the tree, I found their partially finished, hanging nest, an amazing construction woven of grasses, mosses, small twigs, and bits of a variety of different lichens.  I couldn’t really pick them out from the rest, but I assumed the Tibetan prayer flag threads were in there somewhere too. 

A week or so later, the nest appeared to be finished, complete with a tiny, funnel-like entrance near the top. Now, instead of the pair together, only one Bushtit at a time is showing up at the suet feeder, so I suspect they have started setting on their eggs.  Soon, hopefully, we’ll be able to hear the nestlings begging from the cozy wee pouch their parents so carefully constructed, and not too long after that, they’ll all be off, foraging together through the neighborhood.  I hope these amazing, tiny birds that look a little like ping pong balls with tails attached will come back to nest here again in future years.  In the meantime, may those ancient Tibetan prayers protect them!

Bushtit nest

Photo by John Day

 Switching gears here a bit, as my term as President is almost up, I want to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to my fellow board members and chapter members for all the work you do to make Skagit Audubon the great organization it is.  Photo:  Bushtit nest by John Day

Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act

by Tim Manns

At least 390 bird species breed in North America and winter in Latin America or the Caribbean. Stemming decline in the populations of these migratory species requires protecting their habitat and addressing other problems they face at both ends of their annual journey and at stopover sites along their migratory paths. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 2000 created a matching fund to spur projects to protect these migratory species with most of the funds to be spent south of the United States. Last June, with this act about to expire, our Second Congressional District Representative Rick Larsen joined colleagues on both sides of the aisle in a bipartisan bid to renew and improve this program. On April 9th of this year the Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act (H.R.4389) passed the House.  The bill then moved to the Senate where on April 17th it passed on a voice vote.  With the Senate very closely divided, passing on a voice vote implies ample support for the bill from both parties. This bill reauthorizes an annual appropriation of $6.5 million and increases the federal cost share for grants from 25 percent to 33.3 percent. As with the earlier bill, at least 75% of the funded projects must be in Latin America, the Caribbean, or Canada. Find the bill report at CRPT-118hrpt439.pdf (congress.gov).

Prevent repeal of the Carbon Commitment Act (I-2117)

By Tim Manns

At the state level, Audubon Washington in concert with other conservation organizations is organizing to prevent repeal of Washington State’s arguably most important climate legislation, the Climate Commitment Act of 2021 (CCA). This act created a carbon market in Washington setting up a financial incentive for the state’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases to progressively reduce their climate pollution. Revenues which the system generates are funding a host of projects and programs addressing the effects of climate change. All these will end if the CCA is repealed.

Last year a lone individual in the Seattle area spent millions for paid signature gatherers to collect the thousands of signatures needed to bring six initiatives to the legislature. During its session earlier this year, the legislature passed 3 of those initiatives but decided not to act on the remaining three. Those three will appear on this November’s ballot, and among them is I-2117 to repeal the CCA (Initiative 2117.pdf (wa.gov)). The idea that the carbon tax has led petroleum companies, already making record profits, to raise gasoline prices has been the stuff of many news reports. Wherever the truth lies, the reality of human-caused climate change urgently requires action even if it does mean paying a bit more for fossil fuels while they are still in use. The CCA’s cap-and-trade carbon tax system is the most significant element of Washington State’s efforts to slow and reverse human-caused climate change and all it portends for birds and us. Please join the effort to prevent the passage of this reality-denying initiative. Follow this link https://act.audubon.org/a/sign-page-campaign-defeat-i-2117.

For information on conservation issues Skagit Audubon is following, please go to the conservation notes on the chapter website at Skagit Audubon Society - Conservation Notes.

Survival by Degrees

by Tim Manns
At this writing in mid-March two Whooper Swans first noticed weeks ago in fields along Chuckanut Drive west of Burlington are still visiting Skagit County. Thanks to Jeff Osmundson’s good directions, I joined many other birders adding this species to the avian wonders we have seen so close to home. Whoopers nested on Attu Island in the Aleutians in 1996, but most of these near Trumpeter-sized swans inhabit northern Asia and Europe and only rarely visit North America. Of the world’s six swans in the genus Cygnus, there in my narrow scope view were three: a Whooper posed in front of a Tundra and, to the side, a juvenile and adult Trumpeter. It was a dramatic reminder of the avian diversity we can experience in the Skagit. When this Skagit Flyer issue reaches you, the swans will probably have left for their respective breeding grounds: Trumpeters to inland Alaskan or Canadian lakes, Tundras further north to, yes, tundra ponds along the Arctic coast of Alaska and Canada, and the Whoopers back to northern Asia or Europe where they came from, venturing all the way to Skagit’s pastures and potato fields. We know that the presence of swans, ducks, and geese can impose financial burdens on Skagit’s farmers, and we appreciate those who tolerate the waterfowl spectacle the Skagit hosts each winter. Skagit’s present capacity to support huge numbers of ducks and geese and more Trumpeter Swans than any other county in the Lower-48 depends on the bays, marshes, and remaining inland habitat and also on agriculture.

Whooper Swan

Photo credit:  Whooper Swan, Digital Nature Scotland/Shutterstock

National Audubon’s Survival by Degrees: 389 Species on the Brink (Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink | Audubon) is a powerful reminder that climate change has drastic implications for many birds as their ranges shift and, often, shrink. Will swans find the Skagit a good place to winter in the future? Will these far-northern breeders find their necessary conditions for reproduction so changed that nesting failure becomes common? Look at Audubon Washington’s and National Audubon’s legislative priorities and note the pervasive focus on bills and funding to address climate change. These human-caused changes are the foremost threat to birds just as they profoundly threaten people and all life as we know it.

Climate Commitment Act

In 2022 Washington State implemented the Climate Commitment Act (The Climate Commitment Act: Washington’s path to carbon-neutrality by 2050 - Washington State Department of Ecology). This established a cap and trade program as a financial incentive for the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to reduce their carbon pollution. The generated revenues fund projects to transition away from fossil fuels and build the climate resilience of Washington’s communities. The act’s effect on gasoline prices is the subject of heated debate. As a member of the Environmental Priorities Coalition, Audubon Washington supported SB 6052 requiring oil companies to reveal the factors behind gasoline prices and industry profits. The bill stalled in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and is dead for this session. Paid signature gatherers have accumulated enough names for an initiative repealing Washington’s most important climate-related law, the Climate Commitment Act, to appear on next fall’s ballot.

Another Audubon priority, HB 2049, would have required reduction in product packaging and revamped Washington’s recycling system. This bill did not meet the cut-off deadline for a vote on the House floor and will not receive further consideration this session. Companion bills to promote community solar projects (HB 2253 / SB 6113) did not make it out of committee.