Dungeness Weekend

Joe Meche is president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and also serves the chapter as newsletter editor and birding programs coordinator. He has been watching birds for over 50 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 30 years.

Last month’s Beaks and Bills chronicled the trip we made to reconnoiter the area where North Cascades Audubon would stage its first weekend campout. That weekend is now behind us and with the knowledge we gained, it’s a given that we will return to the same area for future trips. If you’re interested, you might consider signing up now because the consensus is that more folks will want to join in the fun next year!

The campground at the Dungeness Recreation Area was an ideal base for walking/hiking field trips on the Dungeness Spit as well as a perfect starting point for short carpooling trips to the Dungeness River Audubon Center. The contrast between the two sites is particularly intriguing with the potential to observe a variety of birds that frequent the diverse habitats that each site offers. The spit provides a typical marine environment while the River Center offers a marvelous riparian corridor where, it’s safe to say, a river runs through it.

The plan for the weekend was to offer both trips on consecutive days with Paul Woodcock and me leading the troops. Roughly half of us would go to the River Center while the remaining bodies would take on a trek to the historic Dungeness Lighthouse at the end of the spit — a round trip of approximately 12 miles. On the following day, we would reverse the trips so everyone could sample both venues. On the first day, my group gathered and headed for the sand at 9 a.m., with our destination barely visible in the distance.

An early highlight came as soon as we reached the beach with the sighting of a flock of about 35 pigeon guillemots close to shore. The birds were just below a cliff face that I eventually found to be laced with nesting burrows. A few guillemots would occasionally fly straight up to the cliff and linger for a while before returning to the gathering on the water. The guano-festooned burrows on the cliff left no doubt that nesting activity was taking place, just behind the U.S. Fish and Wildlife signs that urged the curious to stay out!

After this early stop, we were ready to move on toward the lighthouse to see a few more birds. Sand and cobble beaches are not made for easy walking so it was a matter of one step at a time. Common loons and horned and eared grebes in breeding plumage were diving in the dropping tide, which would measure a minus 1.5 on this day. The morning was calm with very light winds and the kelp heads kept us on our toes as each had the potential to be a new bird to add to the list for the day.

We knew that the majority of wintering birds had already departed for breeding grounds to the north and east, but part of the joy of birding is to observe the lingering birds or late departures like the small flock of semipalmated plovers that seemed to stay just ahead of our every step. These long-winged plovers are like miniature killdeer, but noticeably quieter.

Walking closer to the water on the packed sand proved easier going but we occasionally climbed to the driftwood-strewn crest to check for birds on the inside of the spit. We observed black oystercatchers, western sandpipers, dunlin and sanderlings along the way but a trek highlight came as we neared the lighthouse. We had seen a few Caspian terns along the way but on the adjacent Graveyard Spit we found a nesting colony of at least 100 of these boisterous birds. The large terns were energized and engaging in a number of courtship rituals, including the ever-popular offerings of fish by the males to their prospective mates.

Then, just after we dropped down to the water, again, the entire colony burst into the air, with every bird emitting their distinctive, raucous calls. We returned to the crest to discover that an immature bald eagle was the source of the chaos. The eagle was continually swooping down on something that was out of our sight on the far side of the smaller spit. The terns stayed aloft for a while before finally returning to their nesting area.

Among the flock we saw several birds sitting in typical scrapes in the sand, possibly on eggs. Just before we arrived at our destination, a pair of late Pacific black brant flew past in the sunlight. We also tallied a few harlequin ducks and red-breasted mergansers.

At the lighthouse, we toured the grounds, stretched our backs and legs and even napped a bit in the sun. Savannah sparrows and dark-eyed juncos were active in the salt grass area around the lighthouse, while barn swallows flew low overhead. We said our goodbyes to the lighthouse keeper and began the second half of our trek. The rain we encountered on our return was merely a portent of the weather to come later that evening.

Rain failed to dampen our spirits, however. We had just accomplished our goal of reaching the lighthouse on one of the world’s longest natural sand spits. The Dungeness Spit offers food and protected waters for a variety of species and the significance of this unique stretch of sand as a haven for birds was recognized by President Woodrow Wilson, who signed a bill in 1915 to designate the area as a National Wildlife Refuge.

On our last day, our group set off on a blustery Sunday morning to tour and bird the area around the Dungeness River Audubon Center and the Railroad Bridge Park, west of downtown Sequim. The old bridge spans the fast-flowing Dungeness River and the elevated trestle provides a closer view of birds in the canopy of the surrounding trees. The stretch of trail through the park is part of the Olympic Discovery Trail that connects Sequim with Port Angeles.

We walked part of the trail and encountered a variety of birds, including brilliant western tanagers, Wilson’s warblers, warbling vireos and yellow-rumped warblers. On the river, we located a pair of common mergansers maneuvering through the shallow rapids upstream from the bridge, while swarms of four species of swallows flitted about in search of flying insects. The River Center’s feeders were busy with rufous hummingbirds, bushtits and a lone California quail.

Whether you’d like to consider this area for a group outing of your own or just a quiet getaway for one or two, this well-maintained, well-situated county park is worthy of consideration. Aside from the potential on the spit and at the River Center, you can park your car, pitch your tent and walk on numerous trails for days in search of good birds. The trees in the campground area provide a staging area for many birds before they cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca on their way north. Overlooks and trails on the bluffs look out across the strait and provide potential for wandering seabirds.

Contact me through the North Cascades Audubon Society’s Web site at http://www.northcascadesaudubon.org if you’d like more information or would like to sign on early for next year. It might seem a bit premature, but we can take only 30 people in the group campsite. Two people have already signed on so 28 slots remain. A Dungeness weekend will prompt you to rearrange your list of favorite places to see birds. §