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"It’s more like now than
it’s ever been."
the chalkboard at Bill's
on the Northwest coast, we can see the
awesome, swirling black mass of Starlings
in flight or hear their gurgling chirps and
T1D I
bawdy whistles as they scour lawns and
line wires. The House Sparrow (or "English
Sparrow") was also introduced to the
CORRECTED FOR PACIFIC BEACH TIDES
American east coast from Europe. You
F ebruary - Tides
WASHINGTON AND OREGON COAST TIDES
have seen them: males have a black
STANDARD TIME
LOW TIDES
H IG H TIDES
"bib," grey cap and chestnut-colored sides,
time
ft.
ft
time
ft.
time
ft.
time
DATE
while females are a buff color with a light
9:47 0.4
9:37 1.5
3:28 8.4
1 Sun
3:26 9.1
colored eye-stripe. Having long ago
4:31 7.6 1036 1.4 10:35 1.2
4:11 9.1
2 Mon
adapted to living in the paved and
5:44 7.0 11:42 1.3 11:30 2.0
3 Tue S 5:00 9.1
12:55 1.1
7:04 6.6
9.0
4
Wed
5:55
deforested world which Europeans take
0:34 2.6
2:09 0.8
8:22 6.6
6:56 8.9
5 Thu
3:16 0.4
1 44 3.0
everywhere they go, they are well suited to
9:30 6.9
7:59 8.9
6 Fn
4:13 0.0
2:53 3.0
7 Sat
8:59 8.9 10:28 7.3
urban life and tend to appear in places
5:02 -0.3
3:55 2 9
8 Sun
9:53 9.0 11:18 7.7
5:46 -0.4
4.50 2.7
10:43 9.0
9 Mon
shortly after sprawl or deforestation have
6:25 -O.4
5:38 2.5
0:01 8.0
10 Tue
swept away native animals and
11:28 9.0
10 •
7:00 -0.3
6:23 2.3
11 Wed © 0:40 8.1 12:10 8.9
vegetation. These sparrows are semi
7:32 0.0
7:04 2.1
1:16 8.2 12:49 8.7
12 Thu
domesticated, being dependent upon us
8:02 0.3
743 2.0
1:28 8.4
1 48 8.3
13 Fri
8:31 0.7
820 1 9
2:06 8.1
2:18 8.3
14 Sat
for much of their food, which we provide
8:59 1.1
857 1.9
2:45 7.7
2:46 8.3
15 Sun
9:29 1.6
9:35 1.8
3:28 7.2
both intentionally and not. They are a
3:14 8.3
16 Mon
4:18 6.7 10:18 1.9 10:04 2.1
3:44 8.2
17 Tue
growing presence on the northern Oregon
4:19 8.1
5:21 6.2 11:10 1.9 10:47 2.7
18 Wed
0:14 1.8 11:44 3.2
5.9
6:37
5:04
8.0
19
Thu
coast; turn your head during a downtown
3
1:27 1.6
7:55 6.0
5:59 8 0
20 Fn
snack and they’ll make short work of your
2:36 1.1
0:57 3 5
9:03 6.3
7:05 8.0
21 Sat
3:35 0.5
2:12 3.5
8:12 8.2 10:00 6.8
22 Sun
bran muffin.
4:26 0.0
3:20 3.2
9:13 8 6 10:48 7.4
23 Mon
5:12 -0.5
Other birds, natives to lands east
4:18 2.7
10:10 9.0 11:32 7.9
24 Tue
5:56 -0.8
5:12 2.2
11 04 9 3
25 Wed
and south of us, have occupied the
6:37 -O.8
6:02 1.6
0:13 8.4
26 Thu •
northern Oregon coast in recent years.
11:55 9.5
26 "
7:18 -0.7
6:51 1.0
0:53 8 8 12:46 9.4
27 Fn
House Finches, magenta-topped, have
7:59 -0.4
7:39 0.6
1:37 9.2
1:32 9.1
28 Sat
replaced their locally-native relatives, the
similar looking and forest-loving Purple
Finches.
White- and Golden-Capped
Sparrows, enthusiasts of the city and
meadow, appear in abundance on our
City’s streets, while forest birds - the once-
Play Ballt»!
abundant, tiny, brown Winter Wrens, and
Varied Thrushes, orange-striped and
Go, Cubbies
Robin-like - seldom venture in to town.
We have cleared the trees, changed their
habitat, made opportunities for those
birds which share our preference for bright
sunlight and wide-open spaces. (Like
proverbial canaries in proverbial coal
A rt h a s o p e r a te d In th e g ap b e tw ee n
mines, small birds are also very
w hat we know and w hat we d re a m .
susceptible to the effects of pesticides and
- Edwin S c h lo s s b e r g
other introduced contaminants.)
Locally
native birds can be coaxed back into the
city limits with feeders, specially-sized
bird houses, and - most importantly - the
L. 1/CKAFF-
retention and replanting of native, forest
vegetation.
Still, as construction
whtowal mmic i m
continues, pushing back the forest edge,
native birds will continue to loose local
IlUlSTRMlON
g ro u n d .
Some forest birds still do venture
freely into town. These birds have deep
local roots, roots which run deeper than
our own.
And, like the mountains and
rocks which encircle our town, they were
charged with significance in Native
American ceremony, and served as
enduring mnemonics of indigenous lore.
There is the Stellar’s Jay, with pointed
P.C. Box 1(112
black crown and electric blue body - in
local legends, Jays are chattering advisors
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to those facing challenges, and a
5 0 33^ O3II P«*- A ppointment
messenger of impending danger.
Chestnut-backed chickadees, with black
Late winter sloshes onward.
Churning surf sends sneaker waves - roar,
boom, hiss - shooting across the beach to
tear at the shoreline, exposing flotsam
buried decades before. Whitish foam
tumbles down the beach. Look close: each
white clump and blob contains masses of
iridescent bubbles, made of oils spilled
from a million dead diatoms (single celled
planktonic plants), oils which, wind
blown, leave streaks and smudges on
eyeglasses and beachfront windows.
South
winds continue to blow, mountain tops
stay chilled, and woodland critters - with
winter still here and springtime
approaching fast - venture to the
lowlands for food. Elk gather to graze in
lowland meadow clearings, and birds
gather in town, convening around feeders
and waiting for windfall dumpster meals.
Birds - the feeder outside my window
whirls and chatters with avian energy.
Swirling blotches of light and dark reveal
diverse colors - many, the dark shades of
forest birds drawn into the sharp light of
human-constructed clearings.
Smaller
birds perch, dark on their tops and lightly
colored on their undersides, providing
feathered camouflage when viewed against
the ground from above or against the sky
from below. In their very tissues, they
manifest a long history living high in the
trees and low on the food chain.
Two of our most common birds are
aliens; like most of us, they are the
descendants of European immigrants.
And, like the peoples of Europe, the birds
of Europe have fared well in lands
overseas, adaptable to diverse
environments, fiercely aggressive toward
the natives. The European Starling, an
iridescent black bird with white blotches
and a pointed yellow beak, has been a
growing presence in our area in recent
years. In 1890, 100 of these birds were
released in Central Park, in New York City,
and most North American Starlings seem
to have descended from this ancestral
flock. Abruptly, they spread across the
continent in vast, black clouds, evicting
native nestlings from their nests, and
establishing year-round populations while
other birds are compelled to migrate. (In
this year-round persistence, they are aided
by a unique and masterful use of their
bill: inserting it into soil, opening it, and
tilting their head to look in the resulting
hole for dormant seeds, insects and
larvae, dug in deep for winter). Now, even
BASEBALL
T
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Continued on
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