This Island’s for the Birds!
One island in the Straight of Juan de Fuca is the nesting ground for over 70 percent of Puget Sound’s seabirds. It is a spring and fall retreat for birds away from humans and many other predators. Protection Island, found in the mouth of Discovery Bay west of Port Townsend, is a 364-acre National Wildlife Refuge. The island is home to breeding, nesting and flyway populations of more than 85 bird species including tufted puffins, loons, phalaropes, mergansers, merlins, bald eagles, oystercatchers, harlequin ducks, murrelets and auklets, to name a few.
Viewer Tip: Birds nesting on Protection Island or passing by on migration flights can be observed from the shoreline of Ft. Worden State Park or from docks and piers in downtown Port Townsend. Some Rhinoceros Auklets even travel as far south as Tacoma to forage during the day and return to the island in the evening.
The island is closed to the public, so in order to experience this bird sanctuary up close you must travel there by boat. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center offers bird watching migration cruises on Saturdays in spring and fall, timed to coincide with annual migrations. Special trips are also planned for Thanksgiving weekend and New Years Eve.
This information is provided by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. Learn more: www.ptmsc.org.
Season: Fall
(Sources: http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=13533; http://www.ptmsc.org/education/cruises.html)
