City rips out swallow nests for developer

Returning home all the way from South America, cliff swallows arriving to raise another flock of young at Magnuson Park this spring are finding they have been evicted.

The city parks department scraped all 174 of their nests off Hangar 27 at the park last Friday night to accommodate the construction schedule of a developer leasing the hangar from the city. Don Crowe, of Arena Sports, plans to build and operate a for-profit sports arena at the hangar, a project paid for in part with more than $1 million in federal tax credits.

The parks department says it had to remove the nests for liability reasons before the birds began raising their young again, but that it will welcome them back again next year. But Crowe, just granted a 10-year extension on his lease by the City Council, has other ideas.

"Do you want kids to try to walk around a bunch of bird bathrooms?" asked Crowe, who is investing more than $8 million to rehab the derelict building, where he wants to open an indoor soccer center, basketball courts, an inflatable playground for kids' parties, and a fitness center.

"It is not healthy and safe. I agreed with the parks department to try to work out a long-term solution, but not there. It would be a big problem."

In addition to bird poop, Crowe said he is worried that if something were to happen to the birds or their nests, he could be prosecuted under federal regulations that protect swallows and other migratory birds. The law imposes fines or jail time for directly or indirectly harming migratory birds, such as by causing a disturbance that disrupts their nesting.

"What would you do in this situation? Would you risk going to jail?" Crowe asked.

At the advice of the city's risk manager, the parks department decided to destroy the nests to protect Crowe and the city from liability during construction. It's legal to destroy the nests with a permit from the federal government, as long as the birds and fledglings aren't present.

Bird advocates say the concerns are overblown. Volunteers from Seattle Audubon have washed down the buildings at Magnuson in the past to deal with the poop complaint. And cliff swallows routinely nest under highway bridges roaring with semi trucks and other traffic, undisturbed by the racket.

Activity at the new sports center may or may not affect them, said Dennis Paulson, of Seattle, director emeritus of the Slater Museum of Natural History in Tacoma and a master birder.

Paulson was disgusted that the city destroyed the nests. "Give me a break," he said. "Millions of birds are killed every year in this country unintentionally, and you don't see some game warden out there."

He predicted the birds will rally and find another nest site this season, perhaps even in the park. But whether they'll come back to Hangar 27 next year is anyone's guess. "If they like their new spot, they may just stay there," Paulson said. "It's sort of an experiment that is being played out here."

The birds make gourd-shaped nests of mud, and they return to the same nests year after year. Their homecoming is one of the bellwethers of spring, watched for by the locals.

"Everyone likes to watch them soar and swoop, and they eat a tremendous number of insects," said Tom Kelly, a volunteer steward at the park. "I am not opposed to indoor soccer, but I think it should coexist with the swallows. I don't think the balance is quite right."

For its part, the parks department is committed to letting the swallows come back to the building next year, said Joelle Hammerstad, spokeswoman for Seattle Parks and Recreation. "We are pro-wildlife," she said. "The birds will have access to Hangar 27."

City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw was pointedly pro-swallow. "We had a deal," said Bagshaw, who chairs the council committee that met with Crowe in March to discuss the issue.

Recalling an April meeting with Crowe just before the nests were ordered destroyed, she said she got a clear understanding from him that the swallows would be allowed back to the building once construction was over. But she wasn't there for the whole meeting, and Crowe says he doesn't remember saying that.

"I never had it in my plan that they would be there long term," Crowe said Friday of the swallows.

Wildlife issues are not new for agencies responsible for repairing and maintaining all kinds of structures. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) deals with everything from bushy-tailed woodrats to bald eagles that choose to call bridges and other structures home. The agency has an elaborate protocol of workarounds to avoid disrupting animals during nesting seasons, and it even invites some birds, such as peregrine falcons, to move in by posting nesting boxes.

"They are our friends; they should be on the WSDOT payroll," said agency spokeswoman Jamie Holter, who added that peregrines devour pigeons that poop on bridges, damaging the paint. However, the agency regularly puts up nets on its Interstate 5 bridge over the Nisqually River, right next to a wildlife refuge, to keep cliff swallows from nesting on the structure so the agency won't bother the birds when it has to do maintenance work.

But at Hangar 27, the birds have nested near doors that are going to be welded shut once the sports facility is open, so it seems a compromise ought to be possible, said Matt Mega, conservation director of Seattle Audubon.

"There won't be a lot of access around there, and the whole issue of poop isn't an issue unless he makes it one," Mega said of Crowe. "It's a public building. There needs to be a compromise."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com