April 20, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 3A
In puffin country, Cannon Beach may honor red-winged blackbird
Official bird could
help mark Earth Day
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
As a part of the 12 Days of Earth
Day celebration, Cannon Beach will
be asked to consider designating an
official city bird.
But don’t get too excited, tuft-
ed puffins. A different bird could be
brought into the spotlight: the red-
winged blackbird.
The medium-sized, black-and-
red songbird loves marshes, brushy
swamps and chirping on city power
lines. They relish pecking out the
seeds of invasive plants and fierce-
ly protecting habitat — whether the
trespasser be a fellow bird or an elk.
But most importantly, the species is
an abundant and longtime inhabitant
of the beach town.
“Red-winged blackbirds have
been in that habitat forever. It seemed
to fit the character of Cannon Beach,”
said Neal Maine, a wildlife photogra-
pher who serves on the 12 Days of
Earth Day committee. “They are a
part of the downtown, which is kind
of rare to have a bird colony right in
the central part of the community.”
The committee, which organizes
a variety of environmental activities
throughout April in honor of Earth
Day, decided they wanted to propose
the idea to the city as a formal way
to honor the 100th anniversary of the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a land-
mark federal law that protects dozens
of species of birds. Adopting the bird
LEFT The red-winged blackbird is being proposed
as Cannon Beach’s official bird. | NEAL MAINE
UPPER RIGHT A tufted puffin nests on Haystack
Rock. | HAYSTACK ROCK AWARENESS PROGRAM
LOWER RIGHT A red-winged blackbird protects
its terriority from an elk in Clatsop County wet-
lands. | NEAL MAINE
officially would take a vote from the
City Council. Dozens of cities have
adopted similar designations around
the country.
While negotiating which bird
should be proposed for the title, the
tufted puffin was considered. Cannon
Beach is the home of the largest tufted
puffin colony on the Oregon Coast,
with several festivals and fundraisers
held in their honor. Between that and
the wide array of puffin parapherna-
lia available downtown, the black,
white and orange bird has become
the town’s unofficial icon.
But there are many reasons the
red-winged blackbird has an edge.
Puffins are seasonal, nesting at Hay-
stack Rock for only a few months of
the year, and are not very accessible
unless “you are strategic about see-
ing them,” Maine said.
Red-winged blackbirds are what
people in the community see ev-
eryday, and serve as a better rep-
resentative of the area’s ecology,
Maine said. Designating these birds
would also be historically signif-
icant, as many of them live on the
Little Pompey Wetland — a marsh
named after the son of Sacagawea
from the Lewis and Clark Expedi-
tion by Cannon Beach Elementary
Help clean up trails near elementary school
United Way of Clatsop
County invites community
members to the 2018 Day of
Caring event on April 21. The
Day of Caring is a countywide
opportunity for community
members to give something
back to their community by
volunteering time and talent.
For this year’s projects, Unit-
ed Way of Clatsop County has
partnered with local schools
and parks.
In Seaside, Seaside Heights
Elementary needs help with
bridge and trail maintenance
to keep the outdoor learning
opportunities safe and acces-
sible. The Seaside community
gardens need help prepping for
the upcoming planting season.
In Astoria, Tapiola Park
and Evergreen Fields need
a hand sprucing up the ball
fields for the softball and
baseball season.
New bark chips for the
playground, tree wells for
over 100 trees and painting of
the dugouts and picnic shel-
ters.
In Warrenton, trail main-
tenance on the waterfront
trail between the Lewis and
Clark Bridge and the Young’s
Bay Bridge. Camp Kiwan-
ilong needs help prepping the
grounds for upcoming sum-
mer youth programs.
All volunteers are invited
to attend a thank-you bar-
becue at Camp Kiwanilong
at 3:30 p.m. for community
building, entertainment and
s’mores around the campfire;
visit www.clatsopunitedway.
org or call United Way at 503-
325-1961.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY, April 26
THURSDAY, May 10
WEDNESDAY, May 16
WEDNESDAY, May 23
Cannon Beach Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Academy, 5:30 p.m.
3718 S. Hemlock St.
Cannon Beach Budget Committee,
5:30 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Budget Committee,
5:30 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
WEDNESDAY, May 2
MONDAY, May 14
THURSDAY, May 17
THURSDAY, May 24
Cannon Beach Budget Committee,
5:30 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protec-
tion District, 6 p.m., 188 Sunset,
Cannon Beach.
Cannon Beach Parks and Commu-
nity Services Committee, 9 a.m.,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
TUESDAY, May 15
Cannon Beach Design Review
Board Meeting, 6 p.m., City Hall,
163 E. Gower St.
TUESDAY, May 8
Cannon Beach City Council, 5:30
p.m., city council meeting and work
session, City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
WEDNESDAY, May 9
Cannon Beach Budget Committee,
5:30 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Public Works
Committee, 9 a.m., City Hall, 163
E. Gower St.
Seaside School District Board of
Directors, 6 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin,
Seaside.
Surfrider seeks volunteers
for Earth Day Action Day
The Daily Astorian
Bring some work clothes,
some friends and a surfboard
to participate in the Oswald
West Beach Cleanup event
from 10 a.m. to noon on
Sunday.
The Surfrider Foundation,
along with the Friends of
Cape Falcon Marine Reserve
and Oregon State Parks, is
Dining on the
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Cannon Beach City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 163 E. Gower St.
20 N. Columbia, Seaside
503-738-4331
MONDAY, May 21
MONDAY, June 11
Ecola Creek Watershed Council
Meeting, 4:30 p.m. City Hall, 163
E. Gower St.
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protec-
tion District, 6 p.m., 188 Sunset,
Cannon Beach.
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looking for volunteers to help
clean the beach and partici-
pate in minor restoration proj-
ects as a part of their Earth
Day Action Day activities.
Volunteers will be treated
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School fifth-graders more than 20
years ago.
“It’s the idea that every bird
counts, even common ones like red-
winged blackbirds,” Maine said. “We
have a tendency to go for the rare and
unusual. This is more about celebrat-
ing the ‘common.’”
Haystack Rock Awareness Pro-
gram Director Melissa Keyser also
serves on the committee and said
while her program is naturally partial
to tufted puffins, she embraces the
red-winged blackbird as an official
bird.
“It’s the perfect bird to highlight
because it is often overshadowed by
the puffin,” Keyser said. “While the
puffins are incredibly special and im-
portant, we also want to give credit
to another species. When you are
really immersed in the environment
here the bird that you see is the red-
winged blackbird. We could have
gone with the puffin, but the black-
bird was a little more indicative to
this place.”
Puffin or otherwise, the larger
message is to bring to light the im-
portance of protecting bird habitat.
Posters of the bird with the caption,
“They are all canaries,” are being cir-
culated around town to raise aware-
ness. The phrase plays off the old
adage “a canary in a coal mine,” ref-
erencing a time when canaries were
used as early detectors for carbon
monoxide in mining tunnels.
“They are our measuring stick
to the quality of our environment,”
Maine said. “When the birds start
dying, that’s when you know you’ve
got a problem.”
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