Birders of a feather flock to Washington festivals and viewing sites
Whether it's thousands of shorebirds rising and twisting in perfect sync above the Grays Harbor mudflats or a lone Eurasian thrush lost in an Olympia subdivision, the same chorus of hushed human voices fills the air.
It's a universal reaction — a long, communal inward gasp of awe at the unexpected beauty of the natural world.
"I don't know what the deep magic is," said Bill Tweit, a leading regional birder. "It's something about flight, but it's also something about color. Just the magic of life and creation."
Birdwatching is rising in popularity across the nation, and Washington residents are among the trend leaders. Perhaps inspired by the state's wealth of wildlife habitats — saltwater beaches, river estuaries, vast wetlands, mountain lakes and forests — one in three residents is a birder, according to a recent federal survey. While backyard birding is the most popular form, about half of this state's birders also take trips to feed their hobby. Birding festivals and migratory events abound. Every winter marks the arrival of bald eagles along the Skagit River, as well as trumpeter swans and snow geese on Fir Island. And spring always brings flocks of sandhill cranes to Clark County and hundreds of thousands of sandpipers and other migrating shorebirds to the Grays Harbor estuary.
Bob Morse, an Olympia resident who has published several birding guides, considers himself fortunate to live in what he calls a true birder's paradise. His "life list" of U.S. sightings now totals 831 species, placing him at No. 17 in the eyes of the American Birding Association. As his list grows, the pursuit of new species becomes more illusive and expensive, requiring trips to the outer reaches of Alaska's Aleutian Islands — virtually the only U.S. place to spot some Asian species — or spontaneous jet flights when rare-bird alerts flash through the birding network.
Yet the latest four additions to his life list all were Puget Sound sightings of birds rarely seen in the U.S. His newest checkmark came in January, when a Baikal teal, a small Asian duck that breeds in Siberia, appeared in the Kent Ponds (the Green River Natural Resources Area).
That was just four weeks after a rare redwing thrush showed up in Olympia, drawing more than 1,500 birders from all over the country who spent an estimated $100,000 on food, lodging and other tourist expenses.
"Rather than chase a bird, it's nice to have a rare bird come to you," said Morse, 69, who saw the redwing about a dozen times during its three-month stay. "It was like Old Home Week. Everybody I knew, the best birders from around the country, were showing up."
The excitement generated by visiting pros, walking the streets with their binoculars and powerful scopes, spread to local residents. Groups would gather at likely viewing points waiting for the 8-inch bird, which looks a bit like a robin but with orange-red patches beneath its wings and creamy yellow stripes above its eyes.
Seeing the bird, never before recorded in the United States, was akin to a religious experience for some.
"Suddenly, just out of nowhere, it arrives. The sun breaks out of the clouds and shines on this bird; everything about it is brilliant," Morse said. "There's almost a shock. They've traveled so many miles — people congratulate each other, share scopes, it's a big celebration. They get almost giddy."
List-keepers like Morse and his friends are the extremists among birders. There are many ways to sort lists — it's a bit like the baseball statistic fanatics who find infinite ways to list player achievements.
"Believe me, it gets out of hand," said Bill Shelmerdine, another regional birding expert. "It's like trying to figure out Ichiro's record in daytime games versus nighttime games. I know people who list the calls they've heard on the television." (He keeps a life list, too. North American species: about 650.)
At the other end of the birding spectrum are casual nature buffs such as Cali and Frank Emmons, an Olympia couple who recently drove to Ocean Shores just to sit on a rocky jetty and point their binoculars toward the sea.
"We're actually rich-watchers, not birdwatchers," joked Frank Emmons, pointing to a distant yacht crashing through the rough surf, sending sprays 30 feet into the air. "We're watching the rich spend about 20 to 30 gallons [of fuel] an hour."
They also had spotted sandpipers, cranes, seagulls and a couple of seals.
"We'll look at anything that comes by," Emmons said. "A month ago, at the mouth of Willapa Bay, we saw two trumpeter swans, a herd of 17 elk and a wolf — all without moving. And on the way down, a coyote crossed right in front of us."
Ocean Shores is the state's best year-round birding spot, Morse said. One of his newest books, "A Birders Guide to Coastal Washington," devotes 16 pages plus a fold-out map to the 6-mile peninsula, where nearly 300 bird species have been observed on beaches and along its lakes, canals, open spaces and parks.
Morse founded the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival in 1995. This year's May 6-8 festival will feature guided field trips to Ocean Shores, Westport, Lake Quinault, the Quinault Indian Nation reservation and the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge.
The migration of shorebirds through Grays Harbor as they journey from their winter habitat in South America to their Arctic breeding grounds peaks for about 10 days each year. It's their only stop between the San Francisco Bay Area and Alaska's Copper River Delta, so each bird — western and least sandpipers, short-billed and long-billed dowitchers, semipalmated plovers, dunlin — stays several days to rest and feed.
The wildlife refuge, with its 1,500 acres of mudflats and salt marshes, is a favorite site for birds and birdwatchers alike. Broad boardwalks weave through alder groves and reed fields to reach the open mudflats, where many thousands of birds — mostly western sandpipers — congregate to feed when the tides come in.
When roused — especially by local predators — the small, speckled-brown sandpipers take to the air in a perfectly coordinated swirl, their white undersides flashing as they twist and turn.
"It amazes people that they can universally turn, all of them, in an instant. We don't know yet how they do it," Marsh said. "When the peregrine falcons come in, and they jump up into a ball and fly this way and that, everyone goes crazy."
Shelmerdine, whose day job is geologist for the U.S. Forest Service, said his favorite aspect of birding is the adventure of exploring the natural world.
"There's a lot of thinking that goes along with it. You've got to understand a lot about the world around you. You've got to be aware of the seasons, the climates, the various ecosystems, the interaction of plants and animals," he said.
Birding trips have provided some of the "coolest things I've ever experienced," he said.
Spectacular lightning storms are a prized memory from a 1990 birding foray into the Arizona mountains. A trip to Texas about five years ago led him into a cave, home to 50 million bats.
"If you go right at sunset, they come pouring out; it's an amazing natural phenomenon," he said.
"Those kinds of things happen to you when you put yourself out there. And if you don't, you watch them on the Discovery Channel, I guess."
Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com
Ocean Shores: With wildlife habitats as varied as mudflats, coniferous and deciduous forests, salt marshes, fresh water, open ocean, a rock jetty and sandy beaches, the Ocean Shores area is considered a birding site of national significance. Those who hope to spy a larger variety of sea birds may take open-sea boat tours through Westport Seabirds: www.westportseabirds.com or 360-268-5222. Lodging advice: www.oceanshores.org/lodging or 800-762-3224.
Cascade Loop: Two years ago, Audubon Washington published a fold-out, poster-sized map of the Cascade Loop, which offers a chance to view two-thirds of the state's 365 bird species at 68 featured bird-watching sites. The driving route begins at the Edmonds Marsh, heads east on Highway 2 through Leavenworth, turns north near Wenatchee and then swings through the Winthrop area before meandering west along Highway 20. It takes a secondary loop north to Blaine before coming back down along the coast, ending at Kayak Point County Park just north of the Tulalip Reservation. Information: 866-922-4737.The map includes regional contacts for lodging information.
Mount Rainier National Park: Mountain species that normally are difficult to find such as the gray-crowned rosy finch and the white-tailed ptarmigan, a chicken-like resident of alpine meadows can be spotted along the popular trail systems above Paradise. National Park Service lodging: www.nps.gov/mora/pphtml
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Moses Lake area: No matter the season, birders find something interesting when they head out into the Columbia Basin. Search for nesting waterfowl such as the cinnamon teal ducks, shorebirds such as the black-necked stilt, salt-cliff dwellers such as canyon wrens and burrowing owls that live in prairie dog holes. Lodging: www.moses-lake.com/accommodations.html.
Cle Elum area: The east slopes of the Cascades offer forest species such as white-headed woodpeckers, pygmy nuthatches and flammulated owls. Some birders swing north from Cle Elum along Highway 97, in search of the vividly-hued mountain bluebird, mountain chickadee and Townsend's solitaire and water birds such as the Virginia rail. Lodging: www.cleelumroslyn.org.
Columbia River Gorge: Head east from Vancouver along Highway 14, following the Columbia just above the Oregon border, to combine a pleasant spring drive with a productive birding trip. Highway 142 offers a detour along the Klickitat River northeast to Goldendale. Fans of this trip have spied lesser goldfinch, wild turkey, the stunning Lewis's woodpecker and a variety of raptors. Lodging: www.skamania.org.
Diane Brooks