Point No Point
One of the first places I discovered when starting to bird here in Kitsap County was Point No Point, which is a park area in Hansville where there’s an old Lighthouse along one of the shipping channels in and out of the Sound. There’s a beach there and a path into some protected wetlands, and it was obvious even to a newbie that it was a key birding area in the county. As it turns out, it’s an Audubon Important Bird Area, and so it’s been one of those places I’ve returned to when out and about. It’s about 35 minutes or so away from the house, but I’ve been really impressed the variety of birds there, and there’s a big change from summer to winter and back.
Also near there is Norwegian Point, inside Hansville proper, which is just a mile or so up the beach from the point, but which can have a slightly different mix of birds hanging out. There’s also, not surprising, a fair bit of shipping traffic that goes by, ships headed in towards the port of Seattle, or perhaps even Port Angeles. Often I haven’t taken a camera with, but I’m starting to get back at that again and I’m finding photographing the ship traffic fun. On the most recent visit as I was walking the wetlands path, I happened across my first Sea Otter up here, wandering up the beach for a bit before headed back into the water.
And, of course, Bald Eagles, and I watched a couple flying in the area, with one perching for a while and then hunting the waters along the beach, always with a posse of birds harrasing it, from a single red-winged blackbird to small groups of crows and gulls. All of which it studiously ignored.
I’m hoping to get back to Point No Point this week, and start exploring how to photograph the lighthouse and area and see what happens. It’ll be my first outing with my landscape gear since I moved, and I’m both looking forward to and dreading trying to shake the rust off for that…
