By Anders Price
Map: Randall Preserve, Hilburn Preserve, Bayshore Preserve; eBird: Randall Preserve, Hilburn Preserve, Bayshore Preserve
The Capitol Land Trust works to preserve and restore habitat in the state capitol region. Through conservation easements and outright purchases, the organization has preserved 6,000 acres across 77 sites. Four of these are open to the public. This report covers three of them (the fourth will be covered in a separate report). All three could easily be covered in one day, or checked singly when time is short.
While two of them are quite small, all the sites are in bird-rich surroundings. They are also only recently open to the public and can benefit from more eBird reports. Two of them have Puget Sound shoreline and two have salmon streams. All three are part of the ecosystem at the nethermost southern fingertips of Puget Sound.
Preserves are open from dawn to dusk. Permits or parking passes are not required. Normal COVID-19 safety protocols are in effect: wear masks around others and observe social distancing. Cell phone service is pretty good at all three sites. Crowding was not an issue at any preserve except for the parking lot at Bayshore, for which there is an alternative.
Randall Preserve: Just west of Olympia, this seven-acre preserve with shoreline on Mud Bay (Eld Inlet) has a very short loop trail as well as an inlet observation area. This time of year should be good for diving ducks, gulls, and mixed species winter passerine flocks, as well as shorebirds and eagles. Besides the tidal inlet habitat, the site is grassy with small trees. Saplings have been planted as part of the restoration process. The land trust opened it to the public in 2018, and as of this writing only 11 eBird checklists have been submitted, so there are discoveries to be made. There are no facilities, but there is interesting interpretive signage. The trail is flat with a bark mulch surface.
Randall is also near other spots worth checking. A careful walk across Mud Bay Road to the parking lot of Buzz’s Tavern offers views of a brackish duck pond, and an overlook of another section of Mud Bay from the Peter Puget historical marker. A short drive down Madrona Beach Road to the WADOT park-and-ride brings you to the trailhead of the William Cannon Trail, with more views of Mud Bay (this lot sometimes has RV campers). It is best to walk out to the shore and back rather than continue around to the business park/roadside. Randall is also not far from a good south sound December gull study spot, found across 101 at the Perry Creek bridge on Old Highway 410. Gulls assemble here to scavenge spawned-out chum at low tide.
Location: 4939 Mud Bay Road NW, Olympia, WA 98502. Olympia birders may know the spot as being between the old Blue Heron Bakery site and the old Shipwreck Beads site at the bottom of the hill on Mud Bay Rd. There is parking for about four vehicles at the preserve.
Hilburn Preserve: This ten-acre site is just west of Shelton in Mason County, about 15 miles north of the Randall preserve. Being just off 101, it’s a quick trip. There is a half-mile loop trail with frontage along delightfully lively Goldsborough Creek. The surrounding habitat is typical western Washington woods. One of our party watched an American Dipper, which is not on either of the two checklists for the site so far submitted to eBird. The trail was opened to the public in 2018. It’s surfaced with bark mulch, level, with a few steps up and down. No facilities.
It’s also possible to continue beyond the preserve boundary upstream along the Goldsborough Creek Trail on Green Diamond Resource Company land, passing a series of concrete weirs in the creek, a legacy of when there was a dam upstream. This stretch offers a few breaks of open habitat and some quasi old-growth timber. The dam was removed in 2001, opening up 25 miles of coho salmon spawning habitat. Goldsborough Creek today supports a healthy run of fall coho. This trail is dirt/gravel surfaced.
Location: W. Hulbert Rd., Shelton, WA 98584. Parking for about eight vehicles, with more parking just up the road at the Goldsborough Creek Trail trailhead. Tip: Hulbert Rd. takes a hard left through the Gillis Auto Center complex just before you get to the trailhead.
Bayshore Preserve: This is a 74-acre site a few miles north of Shelton, on a former golf course that is undergoing restoration. Habitat consists open grassy areas with mature firs and white oaks, some smaller copses of trees and shrubs, tidal shoreline, and Johns Creek, currently hosting chum salmon. There are some tall snags worth checking; we found a peregrine in one. At least 1.5 miles of trails crisscross the site, some of which are narrow dirt or bark and others are paved former golf-cart runs. Although the land trust website indicates no facilities, on our visit there was one very clean port-a-potty smack in the center of the site (bring hand sanitizer and TP).
Capitol Land Trust purchased the property in 2014, and much restoration work has been done. EBird has around 130 lists submitted for the site, but there should still be more to discover if birders made it a more frequent stop.
Location: 3800 WA-3, Shelton, WA 98584. Navigation tips: Just before you reach the site coming from Shelton, you may spot a blue sign on the right for “Bay Shore.” Don’t go there; it’s a neighborhood. Parking for the preserve is just beyond on the right, across the highway from a cannabis shop with a psychedelic VW Beetle in front of it. Also, when the chum are running, fishers are allowed to walk through the preserve to the mouth of John’s Creek, making the preserve’s parking area full at times. You can continue driving a couple hundred yards further on Highway 3, to a right where WDFW has a fishing access with plenty of parking (Discover Pass required). You can follow the trail from there down to near the water, where there is a preserve entrance.
BEFORE YOU GO:
Before heading off for a birding adventure, here are some things to consider –
1. It’s always best to have a partner with you – both to maximize the joy and to minimize the risks. BHAS cannot ensure that these locations are totally safe.
2. Don’t forget to bring your mask and hand sanitizer. Have your mask handy and put it on when passing another person not in your party.
3. Leave valuables at home.
4. Check the weather and the bird reports before heading out. An easy way to check what birds have been seen is through Birder’s Dashboard http://birdingwashington.info/dashboard/. It is a simple way to research a species, place, or checklist.
