Wildlife Police Seek Killer(s) Of Protected Birds Near Quincy

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) is seeking the public's assistance in tracking down the person(s) responsible for killing two dozen protected birds in Grant County.

WDFW Police say a common loon and over 20 coots were discovered shot to death in the area of Sunland Estates on Nov. 23.

Get our free mobile app

Agents say the birds' bodies were found between Quilomene Bay and Scammon Landing about seven to 11 miles north of Vantage, and each featured fatal wounds consistent with a single shotgun blast.

Biologists with WDFW performed necropsies on a number of the dead birds and uncovered shotgun pellets beneath their skins.

Investigators say the shootings likely took place on Nov. 22 or on the morning of Nov. 23, and the person(s) who fatally shot the birds was in a boat at the time they committed the killings.

Both the coot and the common loon are listed as protected in the United States as a migratory, non-game species under state and federal law.

There are less than two dozen known breeding pairs of common loons nesting this year in northeastern Washington, and an unknown, but fewer number of nesting pairs west of the Cascade Mountains.