Out & About: Conservation club to set meet Tuesday

The Southwest Washington chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) will hold its monthly members meeting on Tuesday at the Camas Meadows Golf Club in Camas. The meeting will start at 6:30 pm.

The CCA meets every second Tuesday of the month.

Fly fishing club to hold meeting, class

The Clark-Skamania Flyfishers will hold their monthly members meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15. It will be held at the Camas Meadows Golf Club, and will run from 6 to 9 pm.

The club is also offering its annual Introduction to Fly-tying class. The course is offered to members and non-members, and includes 16 hours of instruction by experienced tiers. In addition to the lectures and demonstrations, students will receive hands-on instruction from volunteers.

It will be held on four consecutive Saturday afternoons, and the classes are held at the Vancouver Fire Station number 9 in Vancouver. For information including registration, fees, and dates, please contact Al Wood at (360) 904-7797, or at alanstanleywood@gmail.com.

For more information, see the clubs calendar page at: http://www.clark-skamania-flyfishers.org/calendar.html

Snow geese gather in Southwest Washington

Thousands of snow geese use the fields and marshes of Clark County in January as they make their journey to and from the arctic. The birds gather in the Vancouver lowlands and put on quite a display for local birdwatchers.

The geese gather in flocks of up to 55,000 in parts of western Washington, centering in the Skagit River Valley. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the birds have grown from about one million nationwide to over 13 million.

Look for the birds in feed fields around the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. They often drop into Vancouver Lake as well. The geese are considerably smaller than the Tundra and Trumpeter Swans that winter in Clark County.