<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Birds nestle atop former paper mill

The Columbian
Published: July 29, 2012, 5:00pm

EVERETT (AP) — It seems like everybody has an opinion on what to do with the shuttered Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Everett — including the birds.

Hundreds of Caspian terns — almost 1,000 by one count — have made the mill their new home, laying eggs and raising chicks en masse atop the flat-roofed waterfront warehouse.

Kimberly-Clark ceased operations in April and plans to tear down most buildings. Not long after the mill quieted, the terns started showing up.

Kimberly-Clark spokesman Bob Brand said the company plans not to demolish the warehouse on which the birds are nesting, because it’s a structure a buyer might want.

Caspian terns are visually striking, with bright coral bills, black caps and white bodies.

The terns are gourmets that don’t scavenge for garbage as seagulls do. In 1998, a nesting colony of 10,000 ate 12 million salmon in the Columbia River Basin. People later encouraged the colony to relocate.

Loading...