Padilla Bay

Joe Meche is a past president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is still active in chapter affairs.He has been watching birds for more than 60 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 40 years. He has written more than 132 articles for Whatcom Watch.

With gas prices continually on the rise, it’s always good to find places for exploring and camping that are closer to home, but still give you the feeling that you’re getting away. Less than an hour south of Bellingham, on a drive that includes the ever-popular and always-scenic Chuckanut Drive, is on one of the most ecologically rich and significant estuaries in the Pacific Northwest. With a state park campground and interpretive center close by, Padilla Bay offers a perfect alternative to longer trips and larger carbon footprints.

Padilla Bay, in Skagit County, is the focal point of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The best thing about this reserve is that it isn’t tucked away someplace and out of reach for most of us. The entire area is very accessible for as much hands-on time as you’d like. The reserve is managed cooperatively by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Washington State Department of Ecology. Padilla Bay was selected to be part of the reserve system in 1980.

As a complement to Padilla Bay itself, the Brazealle Interpretive Center is an essential stop to learn more about this incredible ecosystem. The history of the area is well defined in numerous exhibits that highlight the flora and fauna of this part of the Salish Sea — the name given to the waters that encompasses the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Georgia. The center is a great place to involve kids and one entire room is literally filled with hands-on learning opportunities for kids of all ages.

Once you park at the interpretive center and take in all the exhibits inside, there’s more to see. One walkway leads to the forested upland above the center where you can expect to see many of the woodland species that frequent the area in spring and summer. Another walkway winds down through a lush meadow and underneath the highway to an observation deck with a panoramic view of Padilla Bay. Both of these trails are wheelchair-accessible. For those who are able and more adventurous, a spiral stairway leads down to the beach with enough room to satisfy the inner beachcomber.

Just down the road on the north side of the community of Bay View is the entrance to Bay View State Park, a hidden gem of a park that is ideal for visitors who wish to spend more time exploring Padilla Bay and the surrounding area. Like most of Washington’s state parks, Bay View is very well laid out and maintained. It’s an ideal campground for families with small children and, in our case, grandchildren. This campground provides an excellent base camp for further exploration of the beaches and upland forests.

From the day-use beach area you can enjoy spectacular sunsets and marvel at the action of the tides as they ebb and flow. On long, summer days of minus tides, enormous stretches of eelgrass beds are exposed. If you’re prepared with the right footwear, you can explore the intertidal zone to your heart’s content. It’s quite easy to become mesmerized by the minute ecosystems that are exposed so keep an eye out for the incoming tide.

About one-half mile south of the campground is the northern terminus of the Padilla Bay Shore Trail. This perfectly level trail is just over two miles long and was created atop the dike that protects neighboring agricultural lands from saltwater intrusion. The trail is wide with a well-packed surface that is ideal for walking, running, and biking. Several benches and a table or two are in place at various locations to allow for breaks and contemplation, as well as picnics. In the spring and summer months Caspian terns are common sights, fishing in the waters of Big Indian and No Name Sloughs when the tide is in.

The entire dike trail offers a variety of bird species throughout the year, on both sides. While shorebirds and terns mingle with waterfowl on the saltwater, trumpeter swans frequent the agricultural fields during the winter months. Numerous passerine species utilize the trailside vegetation for foraging and cover from birds of prey like merlins and peregrine falcons. Of all the bird species that visit the area around Padilla Bay, perhaps none is iconic as the Pacific black brant. This small sea goose is particular about its diet and the eelgrass beds are perfectly suited for its taste. Late winter is usually the best time of year to see brant on Padilla Bay as they feed on the eelgrass almost non-stop prior to their northward migration in the spring.

As most readers of “Beaks and Bills” already know, whenever I go camping I’m usually up and about early in the morning. This gives me the opportunity to have my first cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise while the birds are warming up for the morning chorus. There’s always the possibility to hear the last refrains from owls as they retire for the day and seek privacy from annoying crows and robins.

Speaking of owls, one particular bird confused a lot of campers this time around. Eurasian collared doves are very common in and around Bay View and tend to frequent the forests in the campground. Their calls are reminiscent of owls, to some extent, so the confusion is certainly understandable. Something to keep in mind, however, was the report from the head ranger of a pair of great horned owls that nest nearby. She assured me that her identification came from a visual confrontation so I, of course, spent time looking for them, to no avail.

On my morning walks I went down to the beach for encounters with Caspian terns and at least a half-dozen bald eagles, nesting white-crowned sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, belted kingfishers, and the usual contingent of glaucous-winged and ring-billed gulls. As I walked through the sleepy hamlet of Bay View, Bewick’s wrens, cedar waxwings, and more white-crowned sparrows were already busy in the neighborhood, either at feeders or in the fruit trees. Other feeders were already busy with rufous and Anna’s hummingbirds. I continued to the shore trail where I was overwhelmed with four swallow species, doing their aerobatic best to consume all the flying insects they could.

One of the highlights from this recent trip came as I was hiking below the campground in an area reserved for group camping. In the quiet of late afternoon, I was startled by a northern flicker that flew out from behind a snag just off the trail. Closer inspection revealed a nesting hole, so I sat and waited. In a short span of time, I observed both the male and female making trips to check on the nest. There were no food deliveries so I believe they might have been keeping an eye on eggs. I’m certain that if I took a quick trip down to Bay View, I’d see a brood of young flickers.

An added bonus on any trip to Padilla Bay is a stop in Edison, the small community we passed through on the way to Bay View. Everything in Edison is within walking distance, since you have only a couple of blocks to cover. The quaint main street is a simple bend in the narrow roadway with a great bakery and restaurants, as well as two taverns if you’re so inclined. Two unique art galleries and a delightful second-hand store are within shouting distance. On a sunny spring day, our short visit there capped off a wonderful time of getting to know Padilla Bay a little better.