Local man pens book on Washington shorebirds

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published September 18, 2001

OLYMPIA -- The coast of Washington is one of the top places to watch birds in the country, says Olympia birder Bob Morse, who should know.

Morse has specialized in bird watching on the coast and has written a book about the area and the best places to find birds. It's his fifth book on birding.

"He knew where you had to be to see the birds," said Woody Franzen, an Olympia naturalist who teaches bird identification.

Morse was a student in one of Franzen's classes in the late 1970s. Morse already knew enough to teach the class himself, Franzen said. Morse said he took the class to learn another perspective on teaching others how to identify birds, Franzen said.

"A Birder's Guide to Coastal Washington" covers 160 spots along Washington's coast to watch the 365 bird species found from Cape Flattery to Cape Disappointment on the Columbia River. It is for bird watchers who want to know where to go or what to expect, Morse said.

In 270 pages, the book covers traditional spots, including Ocean Shores, Tokeland, Leadbetter Point, Bottle Beach and the Willapa and Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuges; and it introduces some new spots to find rare birds, including spotted owls, tufted puffins, marbled murrelets or snowy plovers.

The book, which includes the work of other Washington birders, includes maps, descriptions and detailed information on 82 coastal species. And it lists places to eat and stay.

Morse began bird watching to earn a Boy Scout merit badge when he was 12. He grew up in Boston and attended Brown University with graduate work at Dartmouth in physics and business. He came west to Seattle in 1961 to work for Boeing. His work took him to Olympia in 1970, and he has been here ever since.

Morse was instrumental in preserving an area for shorebirds at Bottle Beach on Grays Harbor, said Steve Herman, who teaches natural history -- mostly about birds -- at The Evergreen State College. Morse is an enthusiastic birder, looking hard and traveling far to find rare birds, Herman said.

Morse has seen 826 birds -- 407 of them in Washington -- of the 984 species found in the United States.

His work is useful and definitive for the area he covers, Herman said.

The book is expected to be available in local stores in mid-October.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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