Birders flock to Erie Pier

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knows it as the Erie Pier Confined Disposal Facility. Originally designed to last for 10 years and store a million cubic yards of dredge material from the Duluth-Superior Harbor, Erie Pier went on to last much longer — twice as long — and store much more material — twice as much. And it isn’t finished yet.

Erie Pier has served the Port well, giving the local dredging team a place for its deposits and keeping the harbor open for safe and efficient vessel traffic.

Erie Pier has also served in another — and somewhat surprising — capacity: birds love it, and so do birders.

One of Duluth’s best-known birders is Laura Erickson, author, columnist and host of a radio show called “For the Birds.” Ms. Erickson said, “There are not a lot of good places for shorebirds to feed at this end of the lake. Erie Pier has some nice shallows, and it attracts a shocking number of birds.”

This spring, bulldozers, fellers and dump trucks have been hard at work on Erie Pier.They’re removing vegetation from the 80-acre site and boosting the height of a dike that encircles it. The cost of the project will approach $500,0000.

When the project is complete this fall, the dike will be six feet taller, and the pier should be ready to receive four to five more years’ worth of material dredged from the Twin Ports’ shipping channels.

Clearly, the pier plays a key role in keeping ships moving through the Port. It is also a popular haunt for birders. Dave Benson, another local birdwatcher, told the Duluth News Tribune that the pier consistently draws many migrating shorebirds and waders. Consequently, it’s a favorite place for viewing in the spring and fall.

Plovers, sandpipers, herons, egrets and sparrows are among the species regularly spotted at the pier, the News Tribune reported. A number of other unusual birds also have been sighted there, including a fork-tailed flycatcher, a burrowing owl and a northern wheatear.

Ms. Erickson said birders from all over the state trek to Erie Pier, which is a designated stop on the North Shore Birding Trail.

The heavy equipment clearing Erie Pier of vegetation this spring didn’t seriously disrupt the birding community. In fact, birders might well welcome the results of the work.

Jim Lind, a research biologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute, told the News Tribune that in recent years the amount of bird activity at the pier has declined, as the area has been filled in and vegetation has grown more dense.

Mr. Lind said the work now under way actually could improve bird viewing at the pier if the dike and renewed dredging activity creates more shallow water and mud flat areas.

Erie Pier belongs to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, which purchased it from Zenith Dredge Co. in the mid-1970s. The authority serves as the local sponsor for all dredging projects in the harbor, working closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Port Authority and the Corps already are planning for Erie Pier’s retirement. The agencies are developing a proposal to store dredge materials, creating a shallow-water wildlife habitat at the site of the old slip.