Naturalist Trip - Bottle Beach State Park

6:20 AM Leave Seattle; we will determine the meeting place later. The group can form carpools.

9:00 AM – Meet up at Bottle Beach. We will bird the boardwalk and some surrounding areas for land birds. We will scan the beach, but the tides will not be the best.

We will then caravan south from there.

The tides are not great for shorebirds at Bottle Beach but will be good at other places. We will look for land birds, particularly migrant birds, at Bottle Beach. Then, as we head south, we plan to stop at places like Westport Marina, Grayland Beach State Park, Tokeland, and others.

After Tokeland, we will circle Willapa Bay and head along its east side, looking for birds and other natural wonders. The exact places will be decided closer to our trip based on what other birders are finding and our scouting trip the weekend before. This will be a second exploration of this area.

Willapa Bay is part of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. It is critical for the conservation of shorebirds and a major stopover point on their migration. There is a lot of ecology, conservation, and fascinating natural history. Willapa Bay is also an important source of oysters in the United States. There are lots of ideas to explore and contemplate.

We can meet early in the day and decide on an official ending point at a certain time so cars can head back north.