Hi Ashwin (& all),
Thank you for your informed comments regarding Horned Lark status in
Multnomah County. Unfortunately I think you're correct about the absence
of Streaked Horned Larks in Washington County. I think they've also
disappeared as a nesting species from Clackamas Co.
Marion County has a STHOLA breeding site that is similar to the
circumstance that you describe in Multnomah (larks nesting on industrial
land rather than agricultural land), on a property owned by the City of
Salem that is slated for development, near Corbin College. Based on
monitoring by Roy Gerig and others, there might be 6 pairs or so in that
area. However the bulk of the nesting population in Marion Co. is on
private agricultural land (mainly in the Waldo Hills area and in the
Marion/Turner area at the south edge of the county). So this doesn't
contradict your statement about the uniqueness of the situation in
Multnomah.
There's some indication that Streaked Horned Larks will take advantage
of suitable habitat when it's within a short distance of sites that
they've used in previous years. But getting them to find suitable
habitat can be difficult when it's more than 2-3 miles away from
existing nesting sites. In addition to the St. Johns landfill, I know
Portland Audubon has made an effort in cooperation with ODFW to monitor
efforts to draw larks into restoration sites on Sauvie Island. So far as
I've heard, larks haven't found those sites yet.
Joel
On Tue, 2018-01-02 at 18:28 -0800, Ashwin S. wrote:
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
