Time is running out to see the 2011 Washington State Federal Junior Duck Stamp exhibit, currently on display at Centralia College’s Washington Hall. The art exhibit will be taken down by its caretakers, Lewis County local ARTrails artists Byrn and JoAnne Watson, of Centralia, Saturday afternoon. “These kids are very, very good artists,” said Byrn, [...]

I get paid to fish, watch birds, tell tall tales and chat with like-minded outdoors fans. It doesn’t get much better than that. This week it was one of the best weeks I have ever enjoyed as a freelance writer for The Chronicle. On Thursday I talked with Marlene Knutz of Centralia and had a [...]

By Kimberly Mason For The Chronicle 15 Years of Counting: Dark-Eyed Junco is Washington’s Top Bird The four-day long Great Backyard Bird Count — one of the nation’s most popular citizen science projects — has ended. Checklists have been submitted; the species have been counted, categorized and tabulated. What’s the word on the bird? The [...]

By Kimberly Mason For The Chronicle The 2012 GBBC will take place Friday, Feb. 17, through Monday, Feb. 20. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages and skill levels in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. [...]

By Kimberly Mason For The Chronicle American Eagles, Great Blue Herons, Canada Geese, Mallards and Red-winged Blackbirds are commonly seen birds in many areas — across all of Lewis County. Yellow-rumped Warblers, Northern Harriers, Killdeer and coyotes are common too, but a little harder to find. But if you want to see an American Bittern, [...]

Where you see one Pine Siskin, you see forty. This is one bird that refuses to travel alone. Pine Siskins travel in large flocks and can empty a bird feeder faster than my youngest son’s hardcore band can strip down a refrigerator leaving nothing but steak sauce and pickle juice. But as the quickly as [...]

By Kimberly Mason / For The Chronicle Snowy Owl Reported at Nisqually NWR According to the Tweeters report, the Nisqually area snowy owl is still in residence. Jeff Jendro, of Longview, last saw the bird on Luhr Beach, across the McCallister Creek estuary, outside of refuge boundary markers. When last seen “it was perched on [...]

By Kimberly Mason / For The Chronicle OLYMPIA — Rain or shine, on foggy days and clear, at 8 a.m. every Wednesday morning, you’ll find Phil Kelley  at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, a birding scope strapped to his back, ready to lead a bird walk. Kelley lives just down the road from the refuge, [...]

By Kimberly Mason / For The Chronicle Each year, from November to April, backyard bird watchers from across the country volunteer to pull up a chair in front of their bird watching window and become citizen scientists for Project FeederWatch. Anyone with an interest in birds and nature is invited to learn more about the [...]

By Kimberly Mason / For The Chronicle As the temperatures begin to dip to just above freezing and are threatening to dip even further, we are reminded that it’s time to get back into the habit of feeding our backyard wild birds. Although natural foods such as insects and fruit are still abundant and easily [...]