Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Some view golf courses as islands of green in rapidly urbanizing
landscapes, while to others they are a spreading blight of habitat
conversion.
—Dan Cristol and Amanda Rodewald (2005)
It is a pleasant, late January morning in the parking lot of my neighbor-
hood Costco. The doors don't open for another two hours, so I'm alone. I did
not expect customers, but the absence of the many Brewer's blackbirds that
live here is surprising. These work-a-day black and buf birds eat the refuse
that shoppers drop in the many-acre parking lot. Iridescent males with pale
eyes display from the few ornamental trees that border the parking spaces.
They pair with one or two females and crowd their nests together in a colony
hidden in the thick, fringing shrubs. They are always here, even venturing
inside the store to eat crumbs at the café and get out of inclement weather. I
wonder where they are today.
As the time for the store to open approaches, I see the i rst blackbirds ar-
rive: eight at 9:46, ten at 9:50, and sixteen at 9:51. At 9:55 shoppers arrive and
queue at the closed doors. Two male blackbirds join them, waiting! The doors
