Audubon book points out several little-known bird areas in Washington

SHARON WOOTTON

Originally published August 14, 2001

When it comes to compiling a list of important bird areas, you wouldn't expect a lot of surprises.

But even experienced birders aren't aware of every significant avian hangout in the state.

That's what Tim Cullinan, biologist for Audubon Washington, discovered as the nominations poured in for the new Audubon book "Important Bird Areas of Washington."

"We had a few surprises. Many of the places were ones that we expected, certainly places like the Grays Harbor area that has huge flocks of sandpipers," Cullinan says.

One surprise was Quartermaster Harbor, between Maury and Vashon islands.

"The local people pointed it out as a place that has extraordinary eelgrass beds that support a high density of herring and surf smelt spawning populations (that) provide a lot of food for the birds that spend the winter there.

"The Western grebe has been declining throughout Puget Sound for the last 20 years but has been hanging on in Quartermaster Harbor," he says.

A second surprise was the Umtanum Creek valley near Ellensburg in Eastern Washington.

While most tributaries into the Yakima River flatten out, this creek stays in a steep canyon all the way to the river, so its surrounding land has never been broken by a plow.

"It's a good example of native sagebrush, native habitat and a diversity of native songbirds," the biologist says. The northern goshawk and loggerhead strike live here, two species of concern.

A third surprise was Point No Point north of Kingston. A birder with a picture-window view to the water has been keeping counts of winter waterfowl for years.

"That place had tens of thousands of seabirds and gulls and other aquatic birds. The way the currents go through there concentrates fish and other prey in there that provides a smorgasbord for wintering marine birds."

The Mima Prairie is one of four Thurston County habitats in the book.

"It contains some of those native grasslands that occurred in the Puget Trough, the lowland between the Willapa Hills and the Black Hills and the Cascades," Cullinan says.

It's home to Hutton's vireo, scrub jay, Western meadowlark, vesper sparrow and others, as well as three prairie-dependent butterflies: great-spangled fritillary, valley checkerspot and Whulge checkerspot, the latter two on the state's threatened list.

The Important Bird Area program started in Europe in the mid-1980s and now has projects in about 100 countries. The book represents the first volume of Audubon Washington's effort, with at least one more to come.

Bird experts screened the nominations, looking for places that were home to threatened, endangered or rare bird species, or had large concentration of birds, or were remnants of native ecosystems.

Each site is described by its physical attributes, the birds and habitat and the conservation issues.

"We want to raise awareness, to get the attention of people who make decisions about land-use or land regulation decisions. We've sent copies of this book to state and local government officials, especially planning departments and other resource-management people, scientists, universities and libraries," Cullinan says.

"The ultimate objective is conservation."

For more information, call Audubon Washington in Olympia at 360-786-8020.

Sharon Wootton is a free-lance writer from the San Juan Islands. E-mail questions, suggestions or comments about nature, or Nature's Journal, to songandword@rockisland.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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