“Look, there’s one!” A girl exclaims, pointing up right into a tree. Fifty-seven pairs of eyes observe her finger. We’re on an Owl Prowl in Discovery Park with Birds Connect Seattle, and 10 minutes in, we’ve noticed one.
Our information, Nathaniel Peters, units up his telescope, and we take turns peering up shut on the barred owl’s face. The chocolate and ash stripes that give it its title mottle like tree bark. If I had come alone, I by no means would have recognized it was there.
Learning to identify hidden owls is among the many causes to hitch the Seattle birding group, and also you don’t need to go to a big park like Discovery to do it.
“There’s not a place in the city where you can go where if you don’t wait for just a couple of minutes, you will see or hear a bird,” says Joshua Morris, the city conservation supervisor at Birds Connect Seattle. Morris has even led chicken walks in Pioneer Square.
“Birds are a real joy in that you always see something,” says Ed Dominguez, the lead naturalist on the Seward Park Audubon Center. Dominguez, who has been birding since he was a toddler and birding regionally since 1987, took me by means of the Seattle chicken calendar:
Early autumn is an effective time for songbirds, together with migrating vireos, tanagers, and warblers, and native birds whose hormones are triggered as a result of the quantity of daylight matches springtime’s. Later in October coots, grebes, and geese who summered in Canada or Alaska choose the lakes. Next, winter snows chase hermit thrushes, Townsend’s solitaires, assorted thrushes, ruby-crowned kinglets, and golden-crowned kinglets down from the mountains. Owls additionally hoot by means of the lengthy nights as they pair off and nest. Then the grand finale: spring migration. Fifty-seven million birds flew up right here to breed from Central and South America final yr.
Learning to acknowledge all these species takes apply, mentioned Peters, the owl walk chief, however it’s doable and it’s value it. You be taught, he says, that “I’m not just a human in a city, but I’m actually still part of a natural, living, breathing world.”
Birding additionally introduces you to a human group. That was the case for Elaine Chuang, a coleader on the owl walk. Chuang advised me she had develop into “possessed by this thing” 10 to 12 years in the past as her profession started to wind down and he or she “came under the influence of some wonderful birders.”
She had an opportunity to pay her instruction ahead, when six months into the pandemic, a snowy owl got here to roost on Queen Anne hill. Every day Chuang would walk to the owl’s hangout with a recognizing scope, alcohol wipes, and a step ladder for youngsters, and invite passersby to take a look.
“I just enjoyed so much being able to help introduce something about this amazing animal,” she says. Efforts like Chuang’s are a part of the rationale the birding group is rising—particularly because the Covid-19 lockdowns. Peters—who posts avian updates on his Instagram @birdmanwithaplan—additionally leads month-to-month chicken walks in Carkeek Park. Numbers on a very good day have risen from 5 to 10 when he began in 2017 to fifteen to 30 now. The walks have additionally drawn extra younger individuals, extra first-time birders, and, slowly, extra individuals of colour.
The stereotypical birder is an older white man or lady. Letting different teams know they’re welcome is why Birds Connect Seattle changed its name from Seattle Audubon this March. The title, given John James Audubon’s historical past of slave-owning, “was one barrier that we identified that was in the way of becoming a more inclusive organization,” Morris says.
Seattle Birds Connect has seen “sustained and growing” curiosity because the Covid lockdowns. Over at Seward Park Audubon Center, Dominguez says engagement has “been increasing dramatically.” The middle is making some extent to welcome the range of South Seattle, with occasions for the Nepalese Seattle mountaineering group, Latino Conservation Week, and Outdoor Afro, amongst others.
If you’re fascinated with bird-watching, each Morris and Chuang recommend beginning with your personal neighborhood. Chuang says the objective is to stay nonetheless and “be kind of a detective” so the birds overlook you and keep on with their abnormal behaviors. Once you’re able to journey, the birdiest spots are typically ones with a lot of totally different habitats like Discovery Park, the Union Bay Natural Area, Seward Park, the Ballard Locks, the Washington Park Arboretum, and Marymoor Park.
To get you began on studying species, Seattle’s chicken specialists suggest the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s free Merlin Bird ID app, which can assist with each visible and audio identifications. For bodily books, Dominguez says David Allen Sibley’s The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition is the “go-to.” Bird Connect Seattle’s Nature Shop has specialists available who can assist you pick binoculars. It’s attainable to get an honest pair for round $100–$200. Chuang says to ensure they’re waterproof and have a 8X or 10X magnification.
Bird Connect Seattle affords neighborhood bird outings—just like the Discovery Park Owl Prowl—which are free and don’t require registration. Seward Park Audubon Center additionally holds a month-to-month intro to birding class referred to as Morning Treats & Tweets. The Washington Ornithological Society—a statewide group—hosts month-to-month digital lessons October to May.
If you too “become possessed by this thing” like Chuang, be ready to develop not solely a higher appreciation for Seattle’s nature, however a want to guard it.
All of the birders I interviewed spoke passionately about threats dealing with birds—from local weather change and three cover loss to outside cats, window strikes, and rat poison—and easy methods to counteract them. The Owl Prowl was organized as a part of Bird Connect Seattle’s second annual Bird-Safe Seattle Week.
“People take care of what they love, and they love what they know,” Dominguez says.
