72 Microseasons of the Pacific Northwest

Brant (Branta bernicla) are small, compact sea geese that breed on Arctic tundra and winter almost exclusively on eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds in sheltered coastal bays. By mid-November, the gray-bellied brant that summer in the western Arctic have moved into their wintering grounds along the Washington coast and Salish Sea, settling into Padilla Bay, Samish Bay, Dungeness Spit, Willapa Bay, and the bays of southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Unlike Canada geese, which are adaptable grazers of grass and agricultural fields, brant are specialists tied entirely to the sea. They swim like puddle ducks, tipping up to reach eelgrass blades below the surface, and rarely venture inland. Flock sizes at Padilla Bay — the largest remaining eelgrass estuary in Washington state, and a National Estuarine Research Reserve — can reach several thousand birds in peak winter. The Padilla Bay Shore Trail near Bay View provides close views across the flats. Dungeness Spit in Clallam County, the longest natural sand spit in the United States, is another major concentration point. The sheltered waters of Dungeness Bay inside the spit hold large brant flocks visible from the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge trailhead. The birds' dependence on eelgrass makes them a sensitive indicator of bay ecosystem health — brant populations drop sharply in years when eelgrass suffers from warm water or turbidity events. Watching a flock of several hundred brant rafting on a grey November bay, occasionally flying low in tight skeins just above the water's surface, is one of the quieter pleasures of the Pacific Northwest winter coast.