Date: 2/19/26 11:50 am From: Mike Wagenbach via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Kayaking and birding in Port Susan
The weather might not be to most people's taste today, but it's
fast getting toward the time of year when I start thinking more about
kayaking. Sea kayaking during the last 30 years comprises a large fraction
of the time that I've spent looking at or for birds. One of my favorite
places, and certainly the one with the least challenging kayaking, is Port
Susan, just north of Everett. I've only kayaked, so you will have to use
your own judgement about other forms of boating like canoeing or
paddleboarding.
Obligatory warning: Sea water in Washington is almost as cold in summer as
in winter. Port Susan is one of the few places that I kayak without
wearing a wetsuit or drysuit, but that only applies if you stay quite close
to shore at all times (about 50 yards or so, depending on your re-entry
skills). Ideally, you should have a group of at least three boats for
mutual support, although that won’t help much unless everyone has some
basic rescue and towing skills.
Also, at any season of the year you should check the MARINE weather
forecast to be sure the wind will not exceed what you are happy with. The
“Admiralty Inlet” zone is probably the best indicator of conditions in Port
Susan. Keep the multiple hours of sun exposure in mind in summer, too. End
of gloom and doom lecture.
Port Susan is the most interesting Washington sea kayaking venue for
relative beginners (in my arrogant opinion), due to the dramatic tidal
action. It also has some excellent bird life in most seasons of the year. I
have seen dozens of Bald Eagles in early spring (March, IIRC) which were
probably the birds who had gathered on the Skagit River for the late winter
salmon run and were waiting for longer days to disperse to territories in
the North. Spring can also have sizable flocks of shorebirds, which may be
chased around by falcons. Summer is a bit less dramatic, but typically
there will be quite a few Great Blue Herons standing in the shallow water
along the tide line. In the fall/winter this is an active area of
waterfowl hunting, so take that into consideration.
The ideal time to go is on a day when there is a low tide in the late
morning or very near noon, preferably a “minus tide” but definitely below
about +2 feet. If you launch from the aptly named Kayak Point County Park,
at or about an hour after low tide, you will have a short paddle north
before reaching the edge of a large sand-flat filling the head of the bay. On
a good minus tide, I believe the area of exposed flats exceeds five square
miles. Unlike most locations on days of big tides, there is virtually no
current here because it is a dead-end bay, so you don’t need to worry about
that.
The boating goal is to find the “channel” that the river water is coming
out of and paddle up it into the tide flat. The water is quite murky, and
there are lots of areas of very shallow water outside the actual channel,
so you may run aground even in a kayak before you can see the bottom. It’s
an amusing puzzle to find the somewhat twisty route in which you can
actually make progress. The Stillaguamish River “delta” really has only
two distributaries: one south near the village of Warm Beach and one that
runs west just south of the marsh that connects Camano “Island” to the
shore, which is far out of the way when coming from Kayak Point, so you’ll
be looking for the former channel.
Once you work your way a few hundred yards up in to the flats, it’s
interesting to pull your boats up on the highest bit of sand you can find
and sit on them for a while watching birds (bring a thermos of tea, maybe,
although beware that there are no concealed places out here for a
pee-break). If you wait just a little while as the tide rises, soon the
water will catch up and surround you. It’s pretty interesting how fast the
sand-flats disappear once you get about two hours past low tide. Don’t
leave your boats unattended!
If you are really persistent, you will reach a couple of salt marsh islands
that you can see on a satellite photo northwest of Warm Beach. I’ve
usually turned back before I made it that far.
Note on parking: There is an entry fee for Kayak Point Park, and parking
at the beach fills up on weekends when the weather is nice. I have not
been there in the last few years, so I can’t say for sure when it maxes out
on the weekends, but if don’t arrive pretty early (10 AM? 11???) you may
have to unload your boats by the boat ramp then park up the hill. Since
you don’t want to launch before low tide, if you park earlier you may want
to have a picnic lunch or bring a frisbee to play on the lawn while waiting
for the tide. Don’t start paddling before low tide, because the fun here
is mostly watching the sand-flats disappear.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this or other areas
for kayak birding. I've been around the San Juans a lot and most of
Washington's other salt water shoreline somewhat.
