Dungeness NWR
Home»Project Info»Study Areas»Columbia Basin / Western Washington»Dungeness NWR
Dungeness Spit is a natural sand spit approximately 8 km in length, located on the Olympic Peninsula in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the City of Sequim (WA). Dungeness Spit is a low-lying peninsula that is connected to the mainland, and is owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. The Caspian tern colony evidently formed on the spit for the first time during the 2003 nesting season, when a few breeding pairs nested on sandy substrate amongst driftwood approximately 1.5 km southwest of the Dungeness Lighthouse National Historic Site. The Caspian Tern colony has remained at this site during 2004 - 2009, and has increased in size to ca. 1,500 breeding pairs by 2009. This makes the Dungeness Spit Caspian tern colony the second largest colony of its kind (after the East Sand Island colony) on the Pacific Coast of North America. Skunks, opossums, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and other mammalian predators have been seen in or near the tern colony, making this Caspian tern colony highly vulnerable to nest predation by mammalian predators (colony failed completely in 2009 due to coyote nest predation). Glaucous-winged gulls also nest nearby. Although located in an area that is closed to Refuge visitors, human disturbance may also affect nesting success at this colony because an adjacent beach is open to the public and is commonly used by hikers and the adjacent bay is popular with recreational boaters.
|
Search This Site
|