News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
A3
Two new species spotted during Christmas Bird Count
Swans, bluebird
make the list for
the 35th John
Day event
By Tom Winters
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
On Saturday, Dec. 19,
members of the Grant Coun-
ty Bird Club performed their
35th John Day Christmas Bird
Count.
Although the weather
looked bad in the morning,
and probably was why so
many birders did not show
up, the day turned out not too
bad. The count numbers were
down, mostly due to lack of
participants, but also because
the weather forced the birds
and the birders to seek cover
now and then.
Two new species were
recorded for the count: trum-
peter swan and western blue-
bird. All told, 58 species were
found and 3,489 individual
birds counted. Participants
were Mike Bohannon, Susan
Church, Hugo Cobos, Randy
Hennen, Clarence and Mar-
ilyn O’Leary and Tom Win-
ters, with Dennis Flippence,
Anne Frost, Cecil Gagnon,
Eva Harris and Nita Van
Voorhis keeping track of their
yard birds.
Birds seen: Canada goose
(347), trumpeter swan (2),
tundra swan (11), wood duck
(20), mallard (86), hooded
merganser (21), common
merganser (34), wild turkey
(65), California quail (617),
great blue heron (10), bald
A black-capped
chickadee was spotted
at Holliday State Park in
Mt. Vernon.
This year’s John Day Christmas Bird Count marks
the first time trumpeter swans were located on the
count day. Two trumpeter swans, in the photo, were
spotted by Bear Valley resident Tom Winters last
week near Happy Valley Road in Mt. Vernon.
Contributed photos/Tom Winters
This varied thrush was photographed last week
at Holliday State Park in Mt. Vernon by avid
birdwatcher Tom Winters of Bear Valley.
eagle (7), northern harrier
(6), sharp-shinned hawk (2),
Cooper’s hawk (10), northern
goshawk (1), red-tailed hawk
(43), rough-legged hawk (1),
golden eagle (1), American
kestrel (12), American coot
(3), rock pigeon (24), Eur-
asian collared-dove (339),
mourning dove (24), barn
owl (1), great horned owl (4),
belted king¿sher (3), downy
woodpecker (3), hairy wood-
pecker (1), northern Àicker
(18), Steller’s jay (14), west-
ern scrub jay (12), Clark’s
nutcracker (1), black-billed
magpie (90), American crow
(1), common raven (104),
black-capped chickadee (35),
mountain chickadee (11),
brown creeper (1), Ameri-
can dipper (2), ruby-crowned
kinglet (2), western bluebird
(1), mountain bluebird (1),
Townsend’s solitaire (55),
American robin (136), var-
ied thrush (2), European star-
ling (627), cedar waxwing
(1), spotted towhee (2), song
(the three days preceding and
following the count) include
red-breasted, white-breasted
and pygmy nuthatches and fox
sparrow.
The John Day count was
one of almost 2,500 Christ-
mas Bird Counts throughout
A white-crowned
Canada, the United States,
sparrow at Holliday State Latin America, Bermuda and
Park, photographed last Paci¿c ,slands. Last year,
week by Tom Winters of
there were well over 72,000
Bear Valley.
participants, most of them out
in the ¿eld, but many count-
sparrow (19), white-crowned ing birds at home. Almost 25
sparrow (37), golden-crowned percent of Canadian counters
sparrow (3), dark-eyed junco were feeder-watchers, while
— Oregon (382), slate-colored only 10 percent were in the
junco (3), house ¿nch (38), United States and 5 percent
pine siskin (38), lesser gold- in Latin America. Might have
¿nch (15), American gold- something to do with the lati-
¿nch (4), evening grosbeak tude?
(5), and house sparrow (131).
The Portland Christmas
Species not seen on the count Bird Count had 375 partici-
day but during the count week pants, the highest number of
birders after Edmonton, Alber-
ta. Last year, 655 species were
found in the United States. One
of the coastal Texas counts re-
corded 234 species, and the
highest count in Oregon was
Yaquina Bay with 151 species.
A count in Ecuador had the
highest count of all with 529
species. This year marks the
116th Christmas Bird Count.
The ¿rst counts, held in 1900
from Toronto, Ontario, to Pa-
ci¿c Grove, California, found
only 90 species. There were
only 25 counts and a total of
27 participants.
Tom Winters is the stand-in
president of the Grant County
Bird Club. The club meets at
6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday
of each month, with a potluck.
Meeting place varies. For
more information, call Win-
ters at 541-542-2006.
TOWN
Continued from Page A1
The Monument Senior
Center is the site of
the town’s Tuesday
senior meals, as well
as the gathering spot
for meetings, family
gatherings and other
functions.
Contributed photos
The 2015-16 Monument School student body and
staff gathered for a group photo.
THE REVENANT R
A TTENTION G RANT
C OUNTY
V ETERANS :
Did you know a service-connected
disabled veteran is entitled to
FREE use of Oregon State Parks?
See your Grant County Veteran Services
Officer today for more information,
located at Grant County Courthouse.
Open Mon, Wed, & Fri, 10 am - 4 pm,
by appointment. Call 541-575-1631
Leonardo DiCaprio. Hugh Glass, a
frontiersman on a fur trading expedition
in the 1820s, is on a quest for survival
after being brutally mauled by a bear.
FRI-SUN
(12:45) (3:45) 7:20
MON-THURS (1:10) (3:10) 7:20 9:40
THE HATEFUL EIGHT R
Quentin Tarantino. In the dead of a Wyoming
winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find
shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a
collection of nefarious characters.
FRI-SUN
(12:45) (4:00) 7:30
MON-THURS (1:00) (4:10) 7:00
STAR WARS: THE FORCE
AWAKENS PG-13
A continuation of the saga set thirty years
after Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of
the Jedi (1983).
FRI-SUN
(12:45) (4:10) 7:10
MON-THURS (12:45) (3:45) 7:10
$9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth
The park in the heart of Monument is the scene for
family gatherings and community events, such as
the annual Monument Jubilee on the Fourth of July.
Jordan said they have a
new sewer project underway,
funded by U.S. Department
of Agriculture grant money.
Crews are also putting in a
chlorination building for the
irrigation system.
Monument is notewor-
thy for being incorporated
twice — once in 1905 and,
for unknown reasons, again
in 1947.
City council meetings are
at 7 p.m. the second Wednes-
day of the month at City Hall.
For more information, call
Monument City Hall at 541-
934-2025.
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
03117
03273
Day River provides for an
area rich in agricultural land.
Meals are served week-
ly at the Monument Senior
Center, which is also the lo-
cation for many community
events, family gatherings,
meetings and other functions.
The Monument Food Bank
provides monthly food dona-
tions — a valuable resource
that assists people in the
Monument and Long Creek
area.
Columbia Power Co-op is
also headquartered in Monu-
ment.
Monument School, with
an enrollment of 62 students
in grades K-12, boasts state-
of-the-art science and com-
puter labs and an ag building
with a strong and active FFA.
Other educational programs
include Ethos, a nonprofit
that offers music lessons,
and a grant from the Gorge
Community
Foundation,
which provides art classes.
The Monument Flying Ti-
gers is a travel club that has
been to China and Thailand
in past years.
Despite the distance from
larger towns — or maybe be-
cause of it — many people
in Monument are longtime
residents who enjoy living
there.
“Let me tell you, this is
an exceptional community,”
said Monument School sec-
retary Jennie Mund. “,f there
is a need, you would be sur-
prised at the people who ral-
ly to help. ... ,t’s small, and
it’s home.”
City recorder Dorothy
Jordan said one longtime
resident recently told her
the best thing about living in
Monument is “it’s not on the
way to anywhere.”
Jordan, who has lived in
Monument for five years and
has been the city recorder for
two-and-a-half, said she per-
sonally likes the slower pace
and being closer to nature.
“The people who come
here want to come here,” she
said.
Monument, with a pop-
ulation of about 125, is
governed by a City Coun-
cil of five: President Carrie
Ussery, and Councilors Pat
McCary, Steve Ussery, Bill
Turner and Phil Merricks.
City staff include Public
Works Director Mike Scha-
fer, City Recorder Jordan,
Finance Manager Robert Yu-
kawa and Maintenance As-
sistant Cinimon Derowitsch.
The community is cur-
rently without a mayor.