10,000-acre estuarine reserve showcases migratory waterfowl from Brant to teal, scaups to pintails, grebes to loons. Don’t forget shorebirds – and don’t miss Padilla Bay-Breazeale Interpretive Center. Audubon Important Bird Area. See Cascade Loop of the Great Washington State Birding Trail.

Area Birding

HABITAT:  Part of the 10,000-acre Padilla Bay National Estuarine Reserve with firs, gravel beaches, a salt marsh, mud flats, and offshore beds of eelgrass.

BIRDING:  A fine site for migrant waterfowl that has Brant, Northern Pintails, American and Eurasian Wigeons, Greater and Lesser Scaups, Long-tailed and Harlequin Ducks, and Green-winged Teal.  Also look for Horned, Western and Red-necked Grebes; Common, Pacific, and Red-throated Loons; and Green Herons.  Shorebirds include Dunlins, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Sanderlings, and Western Sandpipers.  In winter, watch for Peregrine Falcons.

VIEWING:  There’s good birding along park beachfront, especially in winter on the 2-mile-long Padilla Bay Trail located 0.5-mile south of park; and around Padilla Bay-Breazeale Interpretive Center located 0.5-mile north of the park.  Avoid the summer park crowds.

ACCESS:  From Hwy 20 at milepost 53.2, turn north onto Bayview-Edison Rd.  Drive 3.5 miles.  Turn right (east) to the beach parking.