Celebrating 50 Years and One Rare Bird at Wenas
The song of a Western Meadowlark rings out across the eastern slope of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Come Memorial Day weekend, members of Audubon and friends will celebrate 50 years of gathering at the Wenas Campground to welcome the birds and wildflowers of spring. Two hundred and fifty-seven species of birds have been recorded in the area. Few, however, in quite the way as Hazel Wolf, the legendary environmental activist, did.
BirdNote®
50 Years and One Rare Bird at Wenas Campground
Featuring Puns for Wenas by Hazel Wolf
By Chris Peterson
This is BirdNote!
[Western Meadowlark]
The song of a Western Meadowlark rings out across the eastern slope of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Come Memorial Day weekend, members of Audubon and friends will celebrate 50 years of gathering at the Wenas Campground to welcome the birds and wildflowers of spring.
[Western Meadowlark]
Two hundred and fifty-seven species of birds have been recorded here. Few, however, in quite the way as Hazel Wolf, the legendary environmental activist, did. She wrote*:
“When I reached Wenas everybody had left on a field trip; not a FLICKER of anyone, [wika-wika call of Northern Flicker] not a SOLITAIRE soul in sight [call of Townsend’s Solitaire]. No one to CHAT with until my friend, BILL, came [call of Yellow-breasted Chat.] But you should have heard him GROUSE and RAIL. When he started to eat with his fingers, I said, ‘Use your SPOONBILL’ [call of Spoonbill]. We saw some WESTERN TANAGERS… BUNTING a ball around. One hit a BUTEO, but it was caught by a FLYCATCHER [song of Olive-sided Flycatcher]. Next, some cats held a KITTIWAKE attended by a flock of MOURNING DOVES [call of Mourning Dove]. Things got SORA bad when a thief stole my tent and I started to OWL, ‘Bring my CANVASBACK!’[call of Canvasback] Oh well, I’m not the LEAST BITTERN [call of Least Bittern]. I have no EGRETS [call of Snowy Egret].
Fifty years, plus one truly “Rare Bird!” For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Western Meadowlark song [137513] recorded by G.Vyn; Northern Flicker wika-wika call [3] W.V. Ward; call of Townsend’s Warbler [44962] by G.A. Keller; call of Roseate Spoonbill [58920] P. Schwartz; song of Olive-sided Flycatcher [126484] T.G. Sander; call of Mourning Dove [22930] W.R.Fish; Canvasback [3538] A.A. Allen; call of Least Bittern [81807] A.Kirk; call of Snowy Egret [59443] W.W.H. Gunn. Song of Yellow-breasted Chat recorded by Martyn Stewart of naturesound.com
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org May 2013 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# wenas-01-2013-05-21wenas-01
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