Driftwood is tree flotsam, big hunks of wood from forests, eroded by tossing, transported by currents and washed up on beaches. Pacific Northwest coast shorelines have lots of driftwood due to our extensive forests and and massive rivers. Some driftwood comes directly from slopes above beaches, but mostly it’s trees and branches that have fallen inland because of erosion, watershed development, logging or flooding. In our winter wet season rivers run high and fast, carrying logs down to the ocean, where they drift in ocean currents before being deposited high up on shore by big winter surf. The varied provenance of driftwood makes each piece unique and fascinating.
Driftwood isn’t just beautiful and dramatic. It has environmental benefits too, like preventing shoreline erosion and providing habitat for wildlife. Shorelines in general are attractive to birds and other animals for foraging, so birds share this zone with driftwood and make use of it. Driftwood makes a great roosting site, for getting up high to survey the area. It’s also a great place to forage for food. Wind and waves wash all sorts of detritus to the edge of the sea, where it gets lodged in the cracks of these washed up logs as well as in the spaces between and beneath them. Wind from the land blows plant material into the driftwood. Edibles birds find there include seeds, pollen, crustaceans, algae, bits of fish and inverts, bugs, orca poop, and who knows what all might have washed and blown in. Yummy stuff for little birds.
The volume of driftwood has declined over my lifetime sadly due to extensive logging and the increased value of trees, so the beaches are not as rich as they used to be. Still, birds come to shorelines, and driftwood does too. And whenever I visit the beach there are usually birds of some sort to see there — on, in, under, or around the old logs that have washed up.
Here are a variety of birds in the driftwood along various Washington state beaches I’ve seen over the past decade. I’ve ordered the pictures month by month for some context of season and migration. All pictures are from the Pacific Northwest except one as noted from the Caribbean Sea.
January
February
April
June
August
September
October
In pulling together these pictures I note quite a variety of activity and kinds of birds. Shorebirds and gulls yes I’d expect them by the shore, but also raptors, corvids, cormorants, sparrows, finches, wrens, herons, swallows, waterfowl. Beaches are rich sites for birds, and the driftwood there adds to their quality of life.
Dawn Chorus is open for your birdy reports of the week.