Westport Jetty

On the south side of the entrance to Grays Harbor is Westport. The jetty which protects the channel from erosion by the wave that roll in from the Pacific Ocean is one of the few easily accessible places to see shorebirds typical of the rocky coastlines of Northwest America. The site is great for Surfbirds, Black Turnstones and Wandering Tattlers with Rock Sandpiper and Black Oystercatchers more unusual. A few Ruddy Turnstones can be found on migration, most commonly in early May.

IMPORTANT: If the rocks are wet either from spray or rain don't go out on the jetty you will almost certainly fall. The best that will happen is you will wreck your equipment. The wost that will happen is that you will break instead. There are a few surfers and fishermen that walk out more than the first hundred yards or so but if you break a leg it will be a long a difficult crawl to get help.

VERY IMPORTANT: If there is a heavy surf do not go out on the jetty - even if the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Large waves are common, very large waves are rare but not unknown. It would be very easy to get swept off the jetty or get pounded around and break bones.

Best Times To Visit

Fall and Spring are the best times when the numbers of birds are at their hightest - typically 40 to 100. Birds are also present throughout the winter but the frequent storms both locally and far out into the Pacific can generate heavy surf which makes not only photography rather difficult but the act of venturing out on the jetty rather dangerous. Number of birds are usually highest in Fall with October seeing the arrivals of good numbers of Surfbirds and the first Rock Sandpipers moving down from Alaska.

During The Day
Either side of low tide is the best time when the birds are more likely to be feeding on a section of rocks encrusted with barnacles at the start of the jetty on the south side. At other times in the tidal cycle they may be further out ususally feeding on the south side - the water from Grays Harbor is laden with silt so most of the marine life can be found on the south side where the water is clearer. At high tide the birds can be found roosting in small groups about 1/3 of the way out. In heavy surf there they may roost further out on the north side where the water is a little deeper and so the waves breaking on the south side of the jetty do not generate as much spray as those closer to the beach.

Best times for photos is around 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset when the sun is almost due east and west respectively.

What Species To Expect

Surfbird, Black Turnstone and Wandering Tattler are the most common species and you can usually find a few of each any month of the year except from mid-May to mid-July. Rock Sandpipers can be found from around October when the last rush of shorebirds come down from Alaska through to early May. The number of birds is usually less than 5 though in a good year 10 or more can be found. Black Oystercatcher is relatively rare - most birds can be found further north on the Olympic Penninsula - a few birds typically show up in Fall. The start of May seems to be the most reliable time, perhaps young birds returning north to breed.

What's Good

• This is a reliable site for surfbird, black turnstone and wandering tattler, though perhaps Point Brown on the other side of the entrace is better. It is an hours drive around Grays Harbor to Ocean Shores so if you are on the south side of Grays Harbor this is the place, particularly if you are also visiting Bottle Beach or Tokeland.

What's Not So Good

• Depending on the weather and state of the tide you could be in for a long walk and stepping from boulder to boulder is not the easiest, particularly if you are carrying heavy equipment. The great thing about digiscoping is the scope does not weigh very much so you can concentrate on where you are putting your feet.
• There is plenty of salt in the air and the rocks can be slippery so if you really value your equipment or don't have insurance do not venture too far out on the jetty.
• Unless you have the characteristics of a mountain goat, sooner or later you will slip or fall (hopefully not). Try not to break anything.