Bring Your Binoculars: Birding is exceptional in Ocean Shores

Bird watching in Ocean Shores is good any time of year. But it is exceptionally interesting now as migrating shorebirds pass through the Central Washington coast.

The diverse habitat on the peninsula is exceptional.  Nowhere else in Washington do so many diverse habitats co-exist–open salt water, ocean beaches, tidal salt marshes, freshwater ponds, deciduous and conifers woods, rock jetties  and open fields.  For that reason, over 300 species of shore birds and sea birds co-exist.

A snowy owl spotted in Ocean Shores.

Washington State’s birds belong to 18 orders—or large groupings of related families and species.   Easy to identify online, visit BirdWeb (a site of the Seattle Audubon Society) where you can search for a specific bird by entering its name or look for birds according to their groupings.

Be sure to bring binoculars with you when you plan an autumn escape to The Polynesian Resort.   Look up and around and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll see!

Note:  Washington’s state bird is the Will Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), designated in 1951. It’s also known as the American goldfinch of will canary that live on a diet of mainly seeds.