Fort Flagler Historical State Park

IBA (Important Birding Area)

Directions: From SR 19 in Port Hadlock follow SR 116 for 9.8 miles to its end at Fort Flagler State Park. Continue in park to day use parking areas.
Ownership: Washington State Parks
Trail Distance: 5 miles of trails and 3.5 miles of beach
Difficulty: easy 
Fees/Permits: Discover Pass
Notes: Kid-friendly, dogs on leash, historic structures, restrooms, water, camping and picnicking areas available; beach may be impassable during very high tides.

At 780 acres, Fort Flagler is the largest of a series of old military installations on Puget Sound since converted to state parks. In addition to its historic structures and buildings, the park contains fine beaches and a well-developed trail system through its grounds. Owing to its location on the northern tip of Marrowstone Island and surrounded by water on three sides, the park is a great spot for watching marine birds. Its bays, spit, bluffs, mature forest, and meadows also provide excellent habitat for a wide array of other birds.

Look for Caspian terns, common terns, Bonaparte’s gulls, California gulls, glaucous-winged gulls, Heermann’s gulls, Thayer’s gulls, black turnstones, black-bellied plovers, western sandpipers, surfbirds, Pacific loons, horned grebes, red-necked grebes, cormorants, and brandts. Fort Flagler is also an excellent place to spot pigeon guillemots.  In the park’s uplands and forests look for American pipits, woodpeckers, red-breasted sapsuckers, merlins and peregrine falcons, Bald eagles are ubiquitous throughout the park.