Road trip adventures: Birds of the Olympic Peninsula

🦆 Stop one: Sequim Bay State Park

Start your day at Sequim Bay! On the quiet waters just inside the Olympic rain shadow, this park is surrounded by many great birdwatching areas. Stop by the nearby Dungeness River Audubon Center to pick up some literature on bird watching and regional highlights, and see some great exhibits. Then, head over to the park where you just might catch some Arctic terns fighting and fishing as they stop to feed on their 40,000-mile annual migration route.

And make way for ducks! This is home to a wide variety of waddlers such as northern shovelers and wigeons. Spot golden plovers foraging in the grass. Turn your binoculars — and your ears — inland, and you might catch the red-breasted sapsucker tapping away in search of insects.

Then, head on down the inside of the Peninsula along Highway 101 until you swing north at Discovery Bay onto State Route 20 toward…

🦆 Stop two: Fort Worden Historical State Park

Brants take center stage at Fort Worden! Spot these small geese dabbling for their dinners all along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet's rocky shores. Keep an eye out for funny, long-billed whimbrels and fluffy sanderlings strutting and foraging for bugs and crabs among the rocks as they dash back and forth to the rhythm of the tides.

Stop in at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center where you'll learn even more about all the wonderful wildlife inhabiting the region, including really cool — and kid-friendly — exhibits featuring inhabitants of our Northwest waters. Then, head up to the fort above and into the trees where you might catch a glimpse and an earful of little yellow pine siskins twittering as they fight for seeds.

Then, it's back onto Highway 20 southbound, a left turn onto Highway 19 (aka Rhody Drive), and follow the signs to Marrowstone Island (State Route 116) where you'll land at…

🦆 Stop three: Fort Flagler Historical State Park

Stocky and darkly colored, the black turnstone doesn't pack the flash of other shorebirds. But it's a blast to watch them search for eats on the rocky shores at Fort Flagler. Dashing here and there, they flip over pebbles (which gives them their name) to find insects and crabs. Watch them compete for turf along the surf with the dramatically plumed blackbellied plover!

Then, set your sights on the horizon to spot cormorants and grebes diving for fish.

Getting hungry? It's just about lunchtime, so let's backtrack to Highway 101 southbound and head down Hood Canal to …

🦆 Stop four: Dosewallips State Park

Ducks lead the shorebird population at Dosewallips and are a delight to watch as you enjoy a picnic lunch. Pack your own, or shop in nearby Brinnon and bring it in to one of the park's sheltered tables.

You might spy American wigeon and the more rare Eurasian wigeon dabbling in the salt marsh slough grasses. See if you can spot lesser scaups diving for shellfish — their gizzards are so powerful they can eat them shell and all!

Take your binoculars to the alder-lined, .2-mile North Tidal Trail to the observation deck, and you may catch some majestic bald eagles fishing in the icy waters. Wildlife bonus: harbor seals are often sighted here, and a herd of Roosevelt elk make the park a regular stop.

Now we are headed south on 101 again to…

🦆 Stop five: Potlatch State Park

Red-breasted mergansers are interesting-looking ducks, to be sure, but fun to watch as they bob on the Hood Canal waters. Keep your ears peeled — that eerie call you hear might just be a common loon.

Search the foliage for red crossbills with their unique beaks and little fox sparrows kicking up sprays of leaves in search of bugs on the forest floor.

Noisy, bossy and bright Steller's jays are common sights in Potlatch's tree-lined north end.

Now let's swing back onto 101 and turn east on State Route 106 toward…

🦆 Stop six: Twanoh State Park

The warm Hood Canal waters and conifer forests at Twanoh State Park attract an avian extravaganza! Ruddy ducks dig bobbing about in the marshy areas near the gravel- and oyster shell-covered shore. Noisy, boisterous red-necked grebes love the gentle waters here and compete fiercely for territory with the goldeneyes and iridescently plumed buffleheads.

Take a break in one of the rustic (and really cool) shelters built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and listen for tiny brown creepers chirping in the trees.

Just one last stop to go! Continue east on SR 106 until it hooks up with Hwy 3 in Belfair. Head south on SR 3 to Pickering Road, then take the Harstine Island Bridge and…