Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Miscellaneous Items - 1/7/09

Vic Ulsh. We received the following information from Vic Ulsh. Vic is an amazing guy who wears many hats. Vic heads up the East Bremerton Rotary work parties in the Illahee Preserve. The Rotary is instrumental in much of the volunteer work in the Preserve including paying for signs and picnic tables. Vic is also one of the co-chairs of the Illahee Preserve Stewardship committee and if anyone wants to help in the next work party, the information is available below. As you will gather from his writeup below, he is an Audubon member and leads bird outings.

KITSAP AUDUBON: Schedule change for Kitsap Audubon. The Kitsap Audubon meeting is tonight, Wednesday, January 7th starting at 7PM in the lower level of Poulsbo Library. Award winning nature photographer and conservationist Paul Bannick will talk about his recent book "The Owl and The Woodpecker" in a presentation which promises to be woven with spectacular photography, stories, and good information about these two fascinating types of birds. Public is welcome. No charge.

Note: Wednesday's Kitsap Sun noted the Audubon meeting was on Thursday rather than Wednesday. Evidently there was a scheduling problem at the Library and the Audubon meeting was moved up to Wednesday. Pass the word to any who might might interested.

WORK PARTY: We are having a work party this Saturday, January 10th at Illahee Forest Preserve to move wood chips onto trails. Meeting time this Saturday is 8:30 AM at the Thompson Lane entry into Illahee Forest Preserve, located "at the top" of Riddell Road. Parking is available on Riddell Road or Olympus Drive. Wheelbarrows, gloves and pitchforks are most helpful. Members of East Bremerton Rotary will be in attendance. We are excited about putting wood chips onto a new trail section at the north end of Thompson Lane. This will connect Thompson Lane to the Fuson Road Trail. Anyone who cares to join the fun is welcome. Call Vic Ulsh with questions daytime 479-6900 or evenings 373-4824 or vic@bradleyscottinc.com.

BIRD COUNT: First, we completed the Audubon bird count for Kitsap yesterday. Rather difficult conditions for man and bird. Attached is the rough summary prepared for East Bremerton. A few of the viewing points included Illahee State Park - dock and forest, Illahee Community Dock, Illahee Forest Preserve, and Brownsville Marina. Highlights included hermit thrush, varied thrush, ruby crowned kinglets, and a flock of golden crowned kinglets, all on the ground in one parking lot at Illahee State Park. It was magical. The cold weather seems to have brought the kinglets out of the treetops and down to the ground searching for food.



GATE MALFUNCTION: The gate into Thompson Lane at Illahee Forest Preserve was inoperable on Saturday when I visited to do some advance work in preparation for next week's work party with East Bremerton Rotary. The gate was stuck wide open. It would not respond to a gate key. I reported the malfunction via voice mail to County Maintenance supervisor Jim Stoll and to Lori Raymaker. It appears a repairman will be visiting the site this week, but not sure of the date.



PEACOCK: About half way down the Thompson Lane driveway in to Illahee Forest Preserve I encountered a peacock walking toward me on the road. What a dumbfounding experience that was. I parked my car and walked along with it for 100 yards. Very tame. Very docile. I called several area folks to see if anyone knew anything about someone with a missing peacock. I also tried to call you, but no answer. Finally I called Kitsap Humane Society, but they had no thoughts or suggestions other than for me to take the peacock home for the weekend until a KHS officer was available to assist. They were very cordial, but under-staffed and under-equipped for such an inquiry. The peacock finally went into the woods. I fear a coyote or one of the multitude of off-leash dogs will be the demise of this beautiful bird. I'm still struggling to believe what I saw. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the peacock on Sunday to include it within the Audubon bird count.

Keep the Information Coming. Thank you for providing us with information we can pass on.


Jim Aho

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