Urban Birding

Joe Meche is vice president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is in his 10th year as editor of the chapter newsletter. Joe is also a member of the board of directors of the Washington Brant Foundation. He has been photographing birds and landscapes for more than 30 years and has been watching birds for more than 50 years.

When you consider a day of bird watching, you typically think of a destination like a bird sanctuary, wildlife refuge or some large natural area. The traditional hotspots usually necessitate a drive of some distance before you can begin birding in earnest. After you decide where to go and before you leave, however, it’s a matter of getting all your gear together and loading it into your vehicle. After kicking the tires and filling the tank, most of us will want to make sure we know where we’re going, especially if the area is new to us. To ensure a successful outing, preparation is the key.

On the other hand, you might prefer staying closer to home. Maybe there’s more appeal to just walking out the door or even grabbing your bike to do a little birding. Either of these options would certainly provide more exercise than you’re likely to get spending so much time on your gluteus maximus. While you consider the savings of time and fuel, keep in mind that no matter where you live in Bellingham, you’re close to good urban birding.

To get started in this pursuit, stop by the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department headquarters on Meridian Street, and pick up a copy of the Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas map. Spread the map on your kitchen table and mark the spot in town where you live. Draw concentric circles away from your home and you can plan outings that suit your schedule and will take you to numerous places to see birds. With the fantastic system of parks, trails and natural corridors that exist throughout the city, good walks or bike rides can be rewarding in more ways than one. Keep in mind that we live in a unique area that abounds with bird-friendly habitat.

The city wraps around Bellingham Bay, which is highly accessible at many parks and by a network of trails. You can put together an ambitious day of birding and exercise that will take you from Marine Park on the south to Little Squalicum Park on the north. The potential for good birds is especially high when numerous species feed and rest in large rafts on the bay during the winter months. Scoters, loons, grebes, and a variety of sea ducks are easy to observe from a variety of locations. An added bonus along the way is the plethora of pit stops to grab a bite and maybe a latte to fuel your expedition.

On the southeast, Lake Padden provides good birding throughout the year. Extensive trails provide access to the entire lake with a bit of elevation gain above the lake. Warblers abound in the spring and diving ducks enjoy the quiet of the winter months. Bald eagles and barred owls are known to nest above the lake; belted kingfishers find suitable sand banks for nesting burrows on the heavily-wooded far side of the lake; and ospreys nest near these trout-rich waters. You can follow a trail downstream from the lake, along Padden Creek, and eventually find your way to salt water birds as the creek empties into Padden Lagoon and the bay.

From Bloedel-Donovan Park on Lake Whatcom, you can hike or bike along Whatcom Creek to the waterfront. The main trail follows the creek as it meanders past Scudder Pond, through Whatcom Falls Park, and farther downstream. There are numerous access points along the entire route. Below the last series of falls and behind the main post office, the creek flows through Maritime Heritage Park and into the bay. Intermittent runs of salmon return to the creek during the year and attendant birds are always around. The birding can be very good in this area and you are now in downtown Bellingham, just a couple of blocks from where we live. The epitome of urban birding is downtown birding!

Since we packed up our belongings and became serious urban dwellers almost seven years ago, our day-to-day bird watching activities have been altered significantly. We currently live in the heart of downtown and we no longer have feeders. Our rooftop digs would more than likely be overrun with hordes of pigeons, house sparrows and crows if we did. The occasional and seemingly exotic house finches that might drop by would certainly be bullied about by everyone’s favorite bird — the omnipresent European starling.

Many of our bird-connected friends wondered how we would manage, but the transition has been an easy one and we’ve even managed to open new doors. The truth of the matter is that downtown is not a bird-free zone, as some might think. We are centrally located for any number of avian observations and birding expeditions within walking or biking distance. Being a downtown birder requires a bit of imagination as well as a curiosity about where the birds might be. As any Hamster knows, one of the great things about Bellingham is that wherever you live, your neighborhood has its own assortment of avifauna to discover.

In the ongoing process of exploring our new neighborhood, we’ve found a number of hotspots that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. With the city’s Greenways program in effect and the citizenry’s overwhelming penchant for trails, good birding can be found right outside our door. A super bird walk can begin at the mouth of Whatcom Creek as it empties into Bellingham Bay — then head upstream instead of down.

On a typical morning, we travel just a couple of blocks down from our place to the mouth of Whatcom Creek. In the Whatcom Waterway, we often observe goldeneyes, western and horned grebes, cormorants, loons and great blue herons. When the high tide rolls in and fills the basin behind the post office, these and other species will feed almost to the base of the falls. Belted kingfishers are regulars in this area as well. There is often competition from the errant harbor seal, especially when salmon are returning to the creek.

As you follow the creek upstream and past the post office, the trees and blackberry brambles on both sides of the creek are often filled with a variety of passerine species, such as kinglets, bushtits, chickadees, Bewick’s and winter wrens and, on occasion, an American dipper. Close inspections in some of the thicker vegetation have rewarded me with a green heron and a slumbering saw-whet owl. A long-eared owl was observed recently roosting above the creek near the State Street bridge.

In the process of exploring downtown hotspots, one of my best discoveries was that the late spring and summer skies are filled with violet-green swallows. I first saw a violet-green disappear into a hole in the side of a cinderblock wall in an alley off Cornwall Avenue. The swallow was carrying nesting material into this odd cavity. I wondered at the time if nesting boxes might be a good idea in the downtown core. Six years later, we have five violet-green swallow boxes mounted on our apartment walls and by mid-June, there are no vacancies.

This discovery gave life to the nesting box program that is currently in effect through the North Cascades Audubon Society. I build the boxes utilizing variations on the theme that George Garlick devised several years ago. The focal point of these boxes is the unique diamond-shaped opening that only violet-greens can negotiate. Unwanted cavity nesters are excluded by the size and shape of the opening. Since the program started, I’ve built and sold as many as 150 nesting box kits as a fundraiser for our local Audubon chapter.

Downtown birding becomes exciting in the winter months when certain raptor species spend the colder months in pursuit of the smorgasbord of pigeons that adorn numerous downtown buildings. I’ve observed peregrine falcons, Cooper’s hawks, merlins and even red-tailed hawks enjoying the buffet. Barred owls have been observed on Magnolia Street and there has been a regular nesting pair of barn owls in the old buildings at the foot of Cornwall Avenue.

And then there are the flyover sightings that peak when large flocks of Caspian terns spend the summer in the neighborhood. Flocks of as many as 500 individuals are quite vocal as they fly over in the late evening, on the way to who-knows-where. There is still some speculation that the terns are nesting someplace close by, but so far the search has been fruitless. Few sounds punctuate the downtown evenings like the raucous cries of Caspian terns.

Depending on where you live in town, there are many other places to explore. The Interurban Trail between Old Samish Way and the Old Fairhaven Parkway has birding potential along the trail and in the adjoining wetlands of the Chuckanut Ridge area. The Connelly Creek Natural Area has an excellent trail that winds its way to the Sehome Hill Arboretum and wonderful habitat for many forest-dwelling species. Cornwall Park and the area that leads to nearby Bug Lake provide good birding and a nice respite from the surrounding pace of the city.

In the final analysis, no matter where you live in our village, consider leaving the vehicle in the garage occasionally and taking off on foot or on two wheels, if you prefer, to experience some of the finest urban birding anywhere. The cost of gasoline and the need for most of us to get more exercise could be all the incentive we need. When it comes to urban birding, Bellingham has much to offer in our own backyards. §