Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to survey these sites using the same point count techniques my students and
I used in nearby residential and reserve areas.
Don found eighty-two species of birds, most in the places birders rarely
ventured. Caspian terns, peregrine falcons, and belted kingi shers plied the
industrial Duwamish River. Common yellowthroats, willow l ycatchers, red-
winged blackbirds, great blue herons, bald eagles, and marsh wrens lived
along the waterfronts and in the ponds and reeds that were frequent within
industrial Seattle. Many places were open—gravel, pavement, and bare dirt—
yet here Don found a host of early successional species such as the killdeer,
white-crowned sparrow, orange-crowned warbler, western meadowlark, and,
of course, Brewer's blackbird. Don found seventy of the eighty-two species
he discovered in business sites. A third of these were seen only in these sites,
including the extremely abundant white-crowned sparrow, glaucous-winged
gull, and killdeer as well as rarer tree swallows, green herons, and clif swal-
lows. When Don i nished the summer's work, he reported rather sheepishly
that a keen birder could expect to see equal numbers of species in forests of
the Cascade Mountains and in Seattle's industrial heart. Though not as rich
as residential subirdia, the three forests surveyed yielded an average of twenty-
nine species, whereas the twelve business sites averaged thirty-one species. In
fact, one-third of the business sites equaled or exceeded the diversity Don
observed in the richest forest reserve.
Many of my region's most common birds appear to thrive in commercial
and industrial settings. American crows, white-crowned sparrows, American
robins, European starlings, and house sparrows were the i ve most abundant
species in the business world. The other members of the fab i ve—the mal-
lard, Canada goose, and rock pigeon—were regular residents as well. Few
urban avoiders were there, but species that adapt to or exploit young forests,
brushy i elds, meadows, and open grounds were well represented. To me, this
is welcome news. Business sites may function as important inholdings to the
