^ 1908 ^] Edson, Birds of the Bellingham Bay Region. 425 



BIRDS OF THE BELLINGHAM BAY REGION. 



BY J. M. EDSON. 



Bellingham Bay is situated in the northwest corner of the 

 United States, or to be more exact, in one of the northwest corners ; 

 for our country here has a sort of double corner. This resuhs 

 from the reentrant course of the international boundary, which 

 leaves the 49th parallel at the Gulf of Georgia and turns southerly 

 to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, thence westerly to the Pacific. It is 

 the more northerly of these corners that is here considered. The 

 bay is sixteen miles in length with an extreme width of about eight 

 miles, its greatest dimension being from north to south. The 

 Nooksack River debouches into the bay at its northern extremity. 

 About the river mouth there is a delta of marsh lands several square 

 miles in area. These are populated throughout the year and 

 particularly during migrations by numerous species of birds. The 

 variety, changing with the season, includes waterfowl, wading birds, 

 Chinese Pheasants, INIarsh Hawks, Magpies, Red-wing Blackbirds, 

 Kingfishers, Yellow-throats, Tule Wrens and other species. 



On the eastern shore of the bay, about five miles from its northern 

 end, is the city of Bellingham. From this point a fertile, forest- 

 covered plain extends northward about sixty miles. A line drawn 

 northeast from Bellingham would mark approximately its eastern 

 limit. On the west this plain is bounded by Bellingham Bay and 

 the Gulf of Georgia. It is traversed from east to west by both 

 the Nooksack and Eraser Rivers, and the international boundary 

 crosses it between these streams, at a distance of eighteen miles 

 from Bellingham. Southward from this city the bay is bounded 

 by a precipitous mountain wall for about seven miles, its southern 

 end indenting the rich Skagit River bottom. Its western limit is 

 marked by the islands of the San Juan Archipelago and the Lummi 

 Peninsula. 



The mountain wall referred to is the terminus of a spi^r of the 

 Cascades, which here extends westward to tidewater. Some of 

 the peaks of this spur rise to a height of .3000 feet. This is the 

 only interruption in the wide belt of alluvial land skirting the salt 

 water from the Snohomish River on the south, to and beyond the 



