DUNGENESS — They heard it was an “ideal paradise.”
So Lane and Nancy Lasater came.
They saw.
They conquered the North Olympic Peninsula’s big attractions: the Olympic National Park, Port Townsend – and the birds over Sequim.
“I now know there are different kinds of seagulls,” said Nancy, who flew with her husband from Boulder, Colo., to their first formal bird watching event: Olympic BirdFest 2007.
On Friday’s field trip to Dungeness Bay and the Three Crabs beach, Nancy and Lane experienced classic Peninsula birding: flocks of snowy gulls, gleaming black cormorants, a smattering of sandpipers, dunlins and whimbrels.
Bob Boekelheide was their guide, spotting birds on the horizon and pointing out their features with his trademark glee.
Boekelheide is director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center in Sequim and a seasoned scientist, but on field trips, he becomes a boy, surprised and delighted by each species’ behavior.
“Here they come! Black-bellied plovers,” Boekelheide announces before training a telescope onto the round birds landing on the sand.
“The dunlins are really probing,” he says of another bunch.
“Oh, there are sanderlings, too! Take a look.”
“It’s totally entertaining,” Lane said of Boekelheide’s narration.
The Lasaters planned to go on two more of the BirdFest’s 14 trips: to Ediz Hook and John Wayne Marina on Saturday.
“We have to go home on Sunday,” said Nancy.
