By GENE BULLOCK
Kitsap Audubon

The tip of Point-No Point County Park diverts the tides of Admiralty Inlet, creating a churn of foraging fish that is critically important to migrating sea birds. It’s a phenomenon that has made the park and its marine habitat an internationally recognized Important Bird Area, or IBA.

As the tidal currents eddy around the point, opposing currents create a strong tidal rip. The churning action brings nutrients up from the bottom, bringing milling schools of sand lance and herring. The feeding frenzy is quickly joined by hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of diving birds.

Migrating and wintering Bonaparte’s gulls, common terns, common murres, rhinoceros auklets, marbled murrelets, ancient murrelets and brant goose join the feast, along with mobs of glaucous-winged gulls, Heerman’s gulls and rafts of scoters, mergansers, grebes and loons. When the tidal rip subsides, they disappear, except for a lingering few.

The foraging sand lance and herring also attract larger fish, such as salmon. During salmon runs, the shore is often lined with wading fishermen. Drawn by the flurried spectacle of feeding birds, the shoreline also bustles with bird watchers. In Kitsap County, bird watching seldom gets better than this.

The park’s iconic lighthouse and beaches are especially popular in summer. But few know that it is an internationally designated IBA, or why it is so important to birds.

Washington is a vital link in the Pacific flyway. It provides habitat for more than 350 species of birds. Millions of our migratory birds depend on small staging areas during their long journeys to and from breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra, and winter havens as far south as Patagonia. These staging areas are critical to their survival. Sites identified as IBAs need special protection because of their importance to the sustainability of our bird populations.

Point-No-Point County Park and its marine habitat and sand and gravel beaches are especially important to migrating and wintering birds. It’s also a strategically located stopover for birds getting ready to cross the expanse of open water on their way north, or hide and rest after crossing the open water on their way south. Its mix of wetlands and upland forest provide food and safe haven for variety of birds.

In the 1980s, Birdlife International began identifying sites around the world that are critically important to the sustainability of bird populations. They have designated 12,000 IBAs worldwide. The National Audubon Society adopted the IBA program and now has 2,700 designated IBAs in the U.S.

Washington’s IBA Program started in 1997 with teams made up of expert birders, ornithologists and wildlife managers who worked with land owners and local groups and agencies. Selection focused on science, as well as other factors. Washington now has 68 designated IBAs.

— Contact Gene Bullock at genebullock@comcast.net.

From top, a gathering of Caspian terns, Heerman’s gulls and glaucous-winged gulls; a rhinoceros auklet feeds on sand lance; pigeon guillemots are year-round residents. Photos: Don Willott