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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
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Learn your birds
Erick Bengel | Features Editor
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DailyAstorian
Peninsula residents publish
local birdwatching guide
By ALYSSA EVANS
For the Chinook Observer
L
ONG BEACH PENINSULA — Take a look outside
and you’ll likely see at least one of the more than 300
bird species that make the Long Beach Peninsula home.
Residents Madeline Kalbach and Susan Stauffer are on a
mission to make viewing and identifying these birds easier for
residents and visitors alike.
Through their recent booklet titled “Common Birds of the
Long Beach Peninsula,” Kalbach and Stauffer provide a guide
to 141 bird species commonly seen on the Peninsula.
The booklet is an update to Kalbach and Kristine Lashley’s
original “Common Birds of the Long Beach Peninsula: Marsh,
Beach, Bay and Backyard” pamphlet. The new edition is an
expansion; it features more birds in their habitats and removes
less commonly seen birds.
“I’ve seen bird pamphlets with nowhere near the number of
birds in it,” Stauffer said. “That’s the amazing thing when you
look at this peninsula, 26 miles long and a couple miles wide,
that there are so many.”
Kalbach and Stauffer are also interested in research, as well
as wildlife and habitat preservation.
“We both participate in everything we possibly can to edu-
cate people about wildlife on this peninsula and appreciate the
refuge,” Kalbach said.
Looking at wildlife
Alyssa Evans/Chinook Observer
Susan Stauffer, left, and Madeline Kalbach in downtown Long Beach, Wash.
A robin
enjoys
a bath.
Madeline
Kalbach
Short-eared
owls are
year-round
residents
of Willapa
National
Wildlife
Refuge.
Madeline
Kalbach
A newly revised full-color pamphlet de-
signed to be carried in the field identi-
fies some of the Long Beach Peninsula
and Willapa Bay’s amazing birdlife.
Western meadow-
larks aren’t often
observed in Pacific
County, but historical-
ly have had at least
a minimal presence
here most years.
Madeline Kalbach
Kalbach has made a life for herself through teaching. At 18,
she was already working as a teacher and would often take her
students on field trips to view nature. Kalbach eventually pur-
sued a career in sociology.
Her interest in birding reached new heights after she was
awarded a scholarship from a local naturalist club in Ontario,
Canada. Through the trip, she became hooked on birding and
entomology.
“I joined the naturalist club to give back to them and went
from there,” said Kalbach, now director and program coordi-
nator for the Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. A
professor emerita of the University of Calgary’s sociology
department, Kalbach researches population studies of peo-
ple and birds.
Stauffer, a lifelong “outdoor person,” was never
focused on birding but looked at wildlife generally.
“When I got out of college and moved to the Clark
County area I noticed this bird that flew overhead,”
Stauffer said. “It was my first identification. I call it a
B-52.”
Stauffer eventually learned the B-52 was a great blue
heron. Her interest in birding picked up after joining the
Friends and meeting Kalbach. Stauffer, director and trails/
infrastructure coordinator for the Friends, contributes to the
Friends’ monthly newsletter and KMUN 91.9 Nature Notes.
When Stauffer isn’t spending her time on an outdoors-re-
lated activity, she is busy working as an attorney at law in Van-
couver, Washington. She earned a juris doctorate from the
Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, and
a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Cal-
ifornia at Berkeley.
Both Kalbach and Stauffer have mentored women in their
respective fields. Stauffer has done volunteer lawyer work to
support abused women.
Outside interests
Stauffer and Kalbach try to maintain well-rounded life-
styles. Stauffer has often found that when she talks with other
attorneys about what they’ll do after they retire, they don’t
have an answer because their work is their life.
“I’ve always seen some of what I did as part of
me,” Stauffer said. “My life is not just focused on my
career. I’d say a big percentage of the profession
that I’m in has that, because when I talk to some
of the attorneys my age and a little bit older like,
‘When are you going to retire? What are you
going to do?’ it’s like ‘I’m just gonna keep work-
ing because I have nothing else, because I don’t
know what else I would do.’”
Kalbach and Stauffer are also members of the
Shoalwater Birders, a local birdwatching group
that takes monthly field trips.
“When you retire or as you work through life,
you really have to have other interests other than your
work,” Kalbach said. “Coming here allows me to follow
my interests to a greater extent. In Calgary I have to get in a
car and I go for a couple of hours somewhere. Here, we can just
walk out the door and here it is.”
Birdwatching anywhere
MADELINE KALBACH
Red crossbills will come to feeders filled with small black
sunflower seeds, but spend most of their time looking
for seeds in conifer trees.
All you need to birdwatch is a spot to sit outside. When
Kalbach was in her early 20s, her aunt loaned her opera glasses
so she could enjoy birdwatching.
“You don’t have to buy $2,000 binoculars. When I started
out I used opera glasses,” Kalbach said. “It took me a year to
save up enough money to buy a pair of binoculars.”
Birdwatching can happen anywhere, from a backyard to the
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge.
“People should not hesitate to ask questions about what
they’re seeing, keep their eyes open, put up a birdbath,”
Kalbach said. “Feed the hummers, especially in the winter.
And of course remember to respect the bears, so if you put up a
feeder, you bring it in in the evening, or if the bears are around
during the day, you don’t leave it out.”
Kalbach and Stauffer also recommend joining local groups
such as the Shoalwater Birders and the Friends. Supporting the
refuge is an additional way to get involved with local birding.
“You can’t live in this community and not be interested in
wildlife because that’s what it has to offer,” Kalbach said. “This
community has more to offer in the way of wildlife than any
other community I’ve ever lived in or visited.”