Birding in Seattle – Stone, Metal, and Terra Cotta
Seattle is well known for its abundant bald eagle population, with nearly two dozen nests in and around the city. The nests are generally in large green spaces, such as parks and greenbelts, but you can also find many eagles in downtown Seattle. In fact, there are more eagles downtown than any place else. And they are not alone. Several other species are found in the urban canyons.
Although none are real—they are terra cotta, metal, and carved stone—they are fun to find and see. Below are photographs of some of the several dozen eagles, as well as a few other species, a set of duck tracks, and one bird outside of downtown. Please let me know if you know of others.
Former Eagles Auditorium, now ACT TheaterEagle(?), Pelican, Gull (real) at 215 Columbia. Another pelican at 215 Columbia. A duck in the frieze.And nearby the duck left its tracks.Former Seattle Times HQ on Olive between Fourth and FifthFormer Eagles Auditorium, Union St on SeventhEagles atop the Washington Athletic ClubSmall metal adornment, First between Spring and SenecaWater meter covers – Two friends think it’s a stylized cormorant. I think it looks more like a green heron or bittern. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Eagle and sun at 1411 Fourth.Plaza of Norton Building on Second between Marion and Columbia. By artist Philip McCracken. South side of new Federal Building on Marion. Also by Philip McCracken. One of two owls on Tenth Avenue East at East Galer Street.The surrounding area used to be known as Owl Hollow.
2 thoughts on “Birding in Seattle – Stone, Metal, and Terra Cotta”
In the second picture, the bird at the summit of the gable appears to be not an eagle but the heraldic pelican, i.e. “the pelican in her piety.” The heraldic pelican never looks like a real pelican, but is always portrayed tearing her breast open with her bill — a reference to the misconception held in former times, that the mother pelican fed her chicks on her own blood. In actuality, the pelican feeds her young on regurgitated food, which the chicks often take by reaching inside her bill or even down her throat, and most likely, the open gular pouch in this position looked to medieval observers like a gash on the bird’s breast.
In the second picture, the bird at the summit of the gable appears to be not an eagle but the heraldic pelican, i.e. “the pelican in her piety.” The heraldic pelican never looks like a real pelican, but is always portrayed tearing her breast open with her bill — a reference to the misconception held in former times, that the mother pelican fed her chicks on her own blood. In actuality, the pelican feeds her young on regurgitated food, which the chicks often take by reaching inside her bill or even down her throat, and most likely, the open gular pouch in this position looked to medieval observers like a gash on the bird’s breast.
As of 2012, the Seattle Center House/Armory still had the eagles at the main entrances (e.g. http://pastpresenttense.blogspot.com/2012/06/century-21-1962-worlds-fair.html) — are they still there?
MOHAI’s building (the Naval armory at South Lake Union) also has a white eagle outside one of its entrances (the west one, I think).