Hi all,
For what it's worth, the high count for Horned Lark in Multnomah County is
150 on 1/11/2003 by Greg Gillson, at the Rivergate Industrial Area.
Washington County has had an insignificant number of larks over the last
few decades, never more than a few individuals, and probably northern
subspecies (not aware of any Streaked HOLA breeding in Washington County
currently).
Multnomah County is unusual in that (almost?) all Streaked HOLA breeding
occurs off agricultural land. The two significant locations are the
Rivergate Industrial Area, where large numbers of larks have wintered, and
the Portland Airport area. The number of larks at Rivergate has steadily
declined over the last few years, but there are still several breeding
pairs there. Unfortunately, the Port of Portland has permission to develop
all sites at Rivergate in the new future (within ~5 years). The USFWS held
a public comment period last winter on whether or not to allow this, and I
did write to them in disagreement, but this seemed to have no effect on the
decision.
The PDX area will naturally become more important if sites at Rivergate are
destroyed. Broughton Beach just north of PDX hosts relatively large numbers
of larks, especially during the fall. Last November I had a flock of 12
Streaked HOLAs there. Broughton Beach is, however, transitioning out of
suitability for larks as willows are starting to take root. I have no idea
how this will affect lark populations in the airport area, but probably
negatively, as this is a location safe from airplanes and with plenty of
food on the water's edge. Personally, I think most larks at the airport use
Broughton Beach for feeding at least seasonally, but this has no grounding
in scientific observation.
There is an ongoing effort by Metro to transform the former St. Johns Dump
just south of Smith and Bybee Lakes into a prairie. From the photos I've
seen, the results thus far have been impressive, and there have been some
visiting larks there from time to time. However, Streaked HOLAs are
notorious for extreme site-fidelity. It is dubitable that larks will
colonize the location before sites at Rivergate are destroyed, but one can
only hope.
Ashwin S.
Beaverton
