SEQUIM — The coo of a mourning dove and the tat-tat of a gadwall offer clues to the North Olympic Peninsula’s future.
Both humble brown birds are among the species whose numbers are growing across Washington state, according to a report released last week by the National Audubon Society.
Why should the non-birdwatchers among us care about rising duck and dove populations?
They’re an indication of global warming and signal a trend of bird species moving northward as temperatures rise, Audubon biologists say.
Bird counts
At the Dungeness River Audubon Center just west of Sequim, director Bob Boekelheide organizes annual Christmas Bird Counts across Clallam County, and he’s seen the numbers — and the kinds of birds — move all over the map.
For example, between 1975 and 1985, there were seven years when the mourning dove count was zero.
In 2003, Boekelheide said, birders saw a record-breaking 474 doves.
The gadwalls have also grown more abundant. Two were counted in 1975.
In December 2006, birders tallied 110 and hit a high of 153 the following year.
Then there’s that buzzing jewel, the Anna’s hummingbird.
These finger-size birds wintered in California through the 20th century, Boekelheide said.
Sightings rare
“From 1994 to 2004, we never had more than two,” in Clallam County.
In 2006, Boekelheide’s birders caught sight of 10 Anna’s hummers; nine showed up in the 2007 count.
This past December, the total hit 22.
“In Victoria,” Boekelheide added, “there are hundreds.”
Warmer winters are most likely a factor, he said, but climate change is not the only thing bringing birds up here.
In the case of the hummingbirds, homeowners are hanging feeders and planting shrubs that attract them.
Feeders and flowers — on the non-native plants favored by some gardeners — are just two ways humans affect their wild neighbors.
For decades, logging, construction and population growth have carved away chunk after chunk of habitat, until many species have nowhere left to live.
Last week’s National Audubon Society report also listed birds whose numbers are dropping.
In Washington state, those include the marbled murrelet and rock sandpiper; Boekelheide added a list of his own for the North Olympic Peninsula.
“Historically, hundreds of Western grebes spent the winter in Port Angeles Harbor. In the past several years there have been less than 50,” he said.
This isn’t just about climate change.
“There are innumerable things going on here.
“Hydroplane races are very unfriendly to birds sitting on the water in Port Angeles Harbor,” for example.
“The extra ship traffic is a disturbance, as are the chronic fuel leaks that occur.”
Just as more humans, more homes and more storm-water runoff affect streams, sea, orcas and salmon, they hit birds hard, Boekelheide said.
“The chickens have come home to roost, or whatever the cliche is.”
Common loons and horned grebes, meantime, are coming home less often.
Between 1985 and 2000, Clallam Christmas Bird Counts tallied more than 100 loons each year, and 500 to 600 grebes.
In December 2008, counters saw 49 horned grebes and 18 common loons.
These species depend on forage fish such as herring, Boekelheide said. Water pollution may be hurting the fish, birds and marine mammals.
The decline in water birds “may be a real key to what’s going on in Puget Sound,” he said.
The Puget Sound Partnership (www.PSP.wa.gov), a collaboration of governments, citizens, scientists and business people, is studying the effects of pollution and has pledged to clean up the sound by 2020.
For birds, as for people, the future belongs to those who can adapt to a world in flux.
Climate change, Boekelheide said, “could easily be a doomsday scenario for the specialists,” species needing particular habitat such as old-growth forest.
Specialists include the spotted owl and marbled murrelet.
The ones who can withstand the tide of development and change have a better chance, he said.
“The other extreme is the generalists that seem to tolerate humans.
“Their populations are generally increasing.”
An example: Canada geese frequently are seen flying into Sequim.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
