POSTED: Friday, Jul. 02, 2010

Caspian terns crowding into Bellingham pulp mill nesting grounds

BELLINGHAM - The nesting colony of Caspian terns on the abandoned Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill site is almost eight times bigger than it was last year, with more than 1,600 birds counted earlier this week.

Joe Meche, president of North Cascades Audubon Society, said the migratory birds have been hanging out on the Bellingham waterfront for years during spring and summer, but last year was the first time they were spotted nesting here.

An estimated 220 of the large, black-capped seabirds found the graveled area on the mill property to their liking and set up housekeeping last year. Apparently those 200 avian pioneers liked the spot so much that they spread the word.

"The word is out among the terns that Bellingham is looking good," Meche said. "Somehow or other the word gets out: 'Let's go to Bellingham.'"

The birds apparently are still arriving here daily from places they find less desirable, including Dungeness Spit, about 50 miles southwest as the tern flies.

While a fenced-off, partially contaminated industrial site studded with graffiti-scrawled red brick buildings might not seem attractive to humans, it's got a lot of attractions for the ground-nesting birds. It's wide open, so they can see what's coming. The fence protects them from dogs and coyotes, and few people have access to the site.

To a human, the relatively pristine sandspit at Dungeness Spit National Wildlife Refuge might seem a far more attractive spot to raise a family. but coyotes and eagles have been targeting the terns there.

Meche said he saw terns nesting on that northern Olympic Peninsula site as recently as May 2010, but they have since abandoned it, and birds fitted with identifying leg bands at Dungeness in past years are now rearing their young here.

Bellingham Bay also provides a nearby buffet of bite-sized fish for the birds and their young. Meche said he has observed them feeding on herring, sand lance, sculpin and surf perch, but, so far, no juvenile salmon.

The terns' appetite for threatened salmon has caused concern about the impact of their nesting colonies near the mouth of the Columbia River.

During a Friday afternoon visit to the site, many terns were carrying glistening silver herring back to the downy gray chicks waiting expectantly on the gravel and cracked asphalt around the old mill buildings.

Some of the terns used a puddle on the site as a birdbath, splashing merrily and ignoring a pair of mallards that also were attracted to the puddle. But crows or gulls who got too close to the nesting grounds got plenty of attention.

Port Environmental Director Mike Stoner said he recently saw an eagle swoop down to grab a tern chick, and eagles in the area often draw a squawking aerial mob of protective tern parents.

Stoner said the port is cooperating with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect the birds while they nest.

But eventually, something may have to give. The site is slated for environmental cleanup and eventual redevelopment. The nesting site is protected by state and federal laws while the birds are using it, but the port can move in and go to work, if necessary, once they are gone for the season. Stoner said environmental cleanup work could be under way on the nesting grounds in 2011 or 2012.

He hopes the birds will find another site they like if human activity renders their current nesting grounds less attractive in future seasons.

That's what happened in Tacoma under similar circumstances, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report on nesting terns. The birds took over a portion of the old Asarco smelter property there, but when they were displaced in 2001, they nested on the roof of a nearby Port of Tacoma building in 2002. The same report says the terns are believed to have moved to Commencement Bay after they were chased out of the Everett Naval Station area in 1995.

Caspian terns are not in danger of extinction. Their population is believed to be increasing in North America, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Meche hopes a way can be found to provide permanent nesting space for the terns on the waterfront. He said birders might come from out of town to observe them, proving some economic justification for their existence, if anyone needs that.

"The terns would keep coming back if there's a safe place to nest," Meche said.

SPOTTING THE CASPIAN TERN

• black-capped head

• bright red bill

• mostly white underneath, gray above, with long, thin wings

• dive into water to catch small fish

• call is an unmusical squawk or quack, nothing like the familiar cry of the gull

• Online info from Cornell University: allaboutbirds.org/guide/Caspian_Tern/sounds