For 2025, I will be setting out on a backyard and beyond adventure to photograph 100 bird species that call southwest Washington home.
From year-long avian residents to migratory birds, my goal is to highlight the species diversity that can be found right where we call home. I will be excluding bird species that are labeled as exotic/released such as Ring-necked pheasants and invasive species, including ones labeled naturalized, which include the House sparrow and European starling.
A quick New Year's Day trip out to the River S Unit at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge during midday yielded 19 bird species photographed, on eBird, birders recorded 81 total species calling that unit of the refuge home on Jan. 1.
For the New Year’s Day birding excursion, I was most excited to add the American bittern to my list this early in the journey. Although common, they are much harder to spot then Great blue Herons and Great egrets.
As part of the backyard and beyond theme, I plan to set out on further journeys to locations such as Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Willow Grove Park west of Longview, Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge west of Cathlamet and even to the coast on the Long Beach Peninsula that includes the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Disappointment State Park and Leadbetter Point State Park.
Locally, the species diversifies from the marshes and sloughs of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge to the open Columbia River. As well, in 2024 I did an overnight camping trip to the southern flank of Mount St. Helens where I saw Common nighthawks for the first time and in higher elevation different songbirds and other species can be easier to find compared to the lowlands of Clark and Cowlitz counties.
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Barker's progress will be recorded on the Reflector’s monthly Backyard and Beyond page on the third Wednesday of the month.
