November provides opportunities to learn, explore, and connect. Don’t miss our Nov. 1 Backyard Birding program, Habitat at Home, followed by Lights Out on Nov. 13 and a field trip to Ediz Hook on Nov. 15. Our monthly program on Nov. 19, Plant Life of the Olympic Peninsula, promises to be exceptional. This issue also features a rich mix of articles—including The Mysterious Irruptive Owls, the OPAS Swan Team’s 2024–2025 season summary, and news on the Washington Audubon Lights Out resolution recently adopted by WSACC. Also, check out the dates for the Christmas Bird Counts.

Purple Martin Nest Box Volunteers—Photo: Dee Renee Ericks

Be Involved! 
by Audrey Gift, Membership Chairperson

Whether you are a recently-joined or a longtime member of OPAS, we invite you to take a moment to complete the new Be Involved questionnaire on the website.

Please let us know more about your interests, talents, and ideas for what increase the value of your membership while furthering the OPAS mission. Involvement in OPAS can serve as a springboard to greater involvement in our local communities at large!

Click here to access the questionnaire.

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Michael Glore

OPAS welcomes the new Executive Director of the Dungeness River Nature Center!

We are excited to share an important milestone for the Dungeness River Nature Center. After a thoughtful search, the River Center is pleased to announce that Michael Glore has started as their new Executive Director on Monday, October 20, 2025. Michael brings more than 20 years of experience leading interpretation, education, volunteer, and visitor services programs at national and state parks across the country, including Olympic National Park, Redwood National and State Parks, and Katmai National Park. 

Continue reading to learn more about Michael.

On October 21, an OPAS team met with Michael to welcome him and share how we partner with the Center, as well as the programs we lead independently. He was genuinely interested about how OPAS is organized and our ties to the State and National Audubon Society. Though he professed about being a “lesser skilled” birder, he’s eager to join us for upcoming meetings, classes, and field trips. OPAS looks forward to this new chapter for the River Center, one rooted in community, continuity, and care for the natural and cultural resources we all share.

President’s Notes

Are You Your Favorite Bird?
by Matt McCoy 

There is a maxim that a dog owner resembles their dog. Winston Churchill and his English bulldog are the classic example supporting that maxim from a looks standpoint. As a long-time golden retriever owner, I can say with confidence that the maxim doesn’t always hold true from that metric alone. However, because science leaves no stone unturned, there is evidence suggesting that people and their pooches not only look and act similarly, but their similarities deepen over time (don’t ask me what that means for my future under Rio’s influence).

Can the same be said for birders and their favorite birds? To answer this burning question, I conducted a rigorous survey of renowned Olympic Peninsula birdwatchers (15 board and committee chairs who foolishly entrusted me with their emails and confidence) asking what their favorite bird was and why. Most birdwatchers will initially balk at this question. With so many fascinating birds to choose from, how can you pick …

Continue to read about favorite birds.

Black-capped Chickadee—Photo: Mick Thompson

OPAS Backyard Birding: “Home as Habitat”
Presenter: Steve Koehler
Saturday, November 1, 2025, 10:00 a.m. to noon
Dungeness River Nature Center 
Suggested donation: $5

As fall and winter arrive, join Steve Koehler for a photo-rich look at sharing our yards with native birds, plants, and the insects they depend on. Steve will show how local flora provides food, shelter, and nesting habitat beyond feeders and nest boxes, and how birds use plants through all life stages and after they die.

Bring your observations, questions, and local resource tips as we identify native plants that may already be in your yard and simple ways to encourage them.

Learn more

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OPAS/DarkSky Program: "Lights Out”
Presenter: Patty Giffin, Retired Psycologist, DarkSky Board Member, and OPAS member
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Shipley Center, 921 E Hammond St, Sequim, WA
Free to attend

Join us for Lights Out, a slide presentation exploring how artificial light at night disrupts ecosystems, hides the stars birds use to navigate during migration, and adds to atmospheric CO₂. The program focuses on the impacts of light pollution on birds and other wildlife, explains how night lighting alters natural rhythms, and offers practical steps you can take to reduce light pollution in your community.

There will be time for questions and answers at the end.

Learn more

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Common Murres—Photo: Bob Boekelheide

OPAS Field Trip: Ediz Hook
Leaders: Ben Hannah & Gary Bullock
Saturday, November 15, 2025, 9:00 a.m. to noon
Participant limit: 20—Registration required. 
Free to attend 

Join Ben Hannah and Gary Bullock for a morning of birding along Ediz Hook, where we’ll scan the water for loons, grebes, ducks, alcids (including Common Murres), and more. Shorebirds, songbirds, gulls, and raptors like Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons are often seen too. We’ll explore the spit and, time permitting, nearby waterfront areas.

Bring binoculars and dress for cold, windy conditions. Spotting scopes will be available—yours is welcome too.

Learn more details about where to meet and registration.

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Piper’s bellflower—Photo: Courtesy of National Park Service

OPAS Program: “Plant Life of the Olympic Peninsula—The Beautiful and the Strange”
Presenter: Patrick Loafman, Field Biologist
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.  
Dungeness River Nature Center
Free to attend

Botanizing—it's like birding, but without the birds. Trade in your binoculars for a hand lens and join the thrill of a botanist's quest to find all the native plant species on the Olympic Peninsula—climbing mountains, trudging through bogs, and even scrutinizing weedy city lots. Patrick Loafman will share close-up photos of the rare and the strange, as well as the common, the beautiful, and the minuscule.

Patrick earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Auburn University and has worked as a field biologist since 1988. He’s studied a wide range of species—from owls and frogs to elk and songbirds—and has served as a seasonal biologist with Olympic National Park since 1994.

Learn more

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Short-eared Owl—Photo: Dow Lambert

The Mysterious Irruptive Owls

by Bob Boekelheide

At least two species of owls in Clallam County are renowned for their “irruptions.” By irruption, I mean a periodic large increase of a species’ numbers, followed by periods with much lower numbers, maybe missing altogether. 

Snowy Owl is perhaps the most famous of the irruptive owls. With anticipation, we formerly expected a Snowy Owl irruption around here every four to seven years, when they showed up at coastal sites such as Dungeness Spit and Ediz Hook.

The Sequim-Dungeness Christmas Bird Count data showed this periodicity quite well, recording Snowy Owls …

Continue to read about irruptive owls on the Dungeness Data page.

Trumpeter Swans—Photo: John Gussman

OPAS Swan Team Season Summary, 2024—2025
by Liam Antrim and Laura Davis

Our eyes turn to the skies this week as we have our first observations of swan migration and the upcoming five-month overwintering season.

With fourteen years of surveys by Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society volunteers in the files, we have observations and data that help us define patterns for Trumpeter and Tundra Swan presence and habitat use in the lower Dungeness Valley. Yet each season comes with a few discoveries and broadens our understanding.

Considering the variability in weather conditions throughout the summer breeding habitats, the swans' migratory pathways and the thousands of miles travelled between these distant locations, the timing of swan presence in our area seems remarkably predictable. This past winter, swans were sighted …

Continue to read the 2024–2025 OPAS swan-team season summary.

Photo: Courtesy of DarkSky International and Audubon

Washington Audubon Lights Out Resolution Adopted by WSACC
by Joyce Volmut

On October 3, 2025, Washington State Audubon Conservation Committee (WSACC) unanimously adopted a statewide resolution “Lights Out Washington.”

Washington State Audubon Conservation Committee is composed of the conservation chairs of the 25 independent Audubon chapters in Washington. WSACC was formally chartered in 2001 to coordinate and prioritize legislative lobbying and other policy efforts. Its goal is to create a powerful, cohesive voice for “One Audubon” conservation priorities of statewide and regional significance.

The resolution was developed and led by a collaborative effort between the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and DarkSky Olympic Peninsula to work with individuals, businesses, and communities to …

Read more about the Resolution on the News/Blog page.

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Fox Sparrow in snow—Photo: Mick Thompson

Christmas Bird Counts are Coming!
by Bob Boekelheide

Mark your calendars! The annual Sequim-Dungeness Christmas Bird Count (SDCBC) will occur this year on Monday, Dec.15. If you’re really into Christmas Bird Counting, you have other opportunities -- the Port Angeles CBC occurs on Saturday, Dec. 27, the Port Townsend CBC occurs on Saturday, Dec. 20, and the Neah Bay CBC occurs on Sunday, Dec. 14.

Let’s party! This year is the 50th SDCBC. The first official SDCBC occurred in 1975, so technically last year should have been the 50th anniversary, but the 1990 SDCBC was cancelled because of an ice storm. This, then, is our 50th.

Continue to read about the count requirements and contact information for each count on the News/Blog page.