Click image to enlarge
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Badger Island, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 12, upstream of the Port of Walla Walla.
Image taken September 25, 2005.
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Badger Island and Crescent Island ...
Badger Island ...
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Badger Island, not quite 15 acres in size, is part of the McNary National Wildlife Refuge. The island is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is co-managed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Badger Island is the location of the only known nesting colony of American White Pelicans in the State of Washington (information dated 2007), listed as an endangered bird in Washingon. The island is closed to the Public.
According to the "Bird Research Northwest" website (2009),
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"... American white
pelicans first nested on Badger Island in 1997 (ca. 20 breeding pairs) and
the colony has grown to about 700 breeding pairs by 2007. Pelicans nest on
the ground in at least three disjunct areas of the island: the upstream
tip, half way down the island on the eastern shore, and the interior of
the island. Much of the pelican colony is concealed from view from the
water and from the air by dense shrub vegetation; the size of the colony
is estimated by counts of adults from aerial photos taken of the island.
..."
[Bird Research Northwest, in partnership with Oregon State University, Real
Time Research, and the USGS-Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research
Unit, website, June 2009]
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Crescent Island ...
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Crescent Island, just downstream from Badger Island, is also part of the McNary National Wildlife Refuge complex, and is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and co-managed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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"... Crescent Island is artificial and was created from
dredged materials in 1985 as mitigation for waterfowl nesting habitat lost
during construction of the Wallula pulp mill; today it consists of ca. 3
ha with a mix of dense upland shrub habitat (island interior) and bare
ground (island periphery). Caspian terns have nested on Crescent Island
since shortly after the island was built. In 2001 the Caspian tern colony
consisted of over 650 nesting pairs, but has steadily declined to 390
breeding pairs in 2008. The area used by nesting terns is small (0.07 ha)
compared to the much larger area used by nesting California gulls, which
use the area immediately adjacent to the tern colony and around the
island’s periphery. About 2,000 pairs of California gulls nest on Crescent
Island, along with a few breeding pairs of ring-billed gulls. The presence
of the large gull colony on Crescent Island seems to limit the area used
by the Caspian tern colony. Black-crowned night-herons and great blue
herons nest in trees in the island's interior.
..."
[Bird Research Northwest, in partnership with Oregon State University, Real
Time Research, and the USGS-Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research
Unit, website, June 2009]
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Click image to enlarge
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Crescent Island, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 12, upstream of the Port of Walla Walla. The Wallula Gap is in the background.
Image taken September 25, 2005.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, October 18, 1805 ...
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