Andrew Acomb

When I was a bit more mobile, long story, Jennifer and I went to the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival. This year the festival was held on May 2nd through the 4th in Hoquiam, Washington. Each year thousands upon thousands of shorebirds stop here at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge for a bite to eat and a chance to rest on their long journey north. Many of these birds travel over 15,000 miles to their northern breeding grounds. The muddy tideflats of the Grays Harbor Estuary is “one of 4 major staging areas for shorebirds in North America and one of the largest concetrations of shorebirds on the west coast south of Alaska“.

The best veiwing times are at high tide, so plan your trip accordingly. The high tide will cover most of the mud flats so the shorebirds will be concetrated closer to the viewing areas. We timed our trip just right. We arrived just before high tide. That day they recorded nearly 40,000 birds. Some of the most abundant birds out there were the Western Sandpiper, Dunlin, Semipalmated Plover, and the Green-winged Teal duck.

At the main viewing area, there were employees from the Wildlife Refuge with professional scopes spotting birds and helping other spectators find some of the rare birds hidden among the thousands.  The rare birds we saw that day were the Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, and the Caspian Tern.

The highlight of the day for me was when a few thousand birds flew in that unique cloud-like formation maybe 10 feet above my head then landing in the mud flats just beyond the viewing area.