Yaquina Bay (Idaho Point)

Habitat and Birds

The mouth and embayment areas of lower Yaquina Bay have been designated a State Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society of Portland because it regularly hosts thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds in season. The American Bird Conservancy in October 1998 also designated most of the tidelands and submerged lands downstream from Toledo Airport a Continentally Important Bird Area because it provides habitat for continentally important numbers of Western Gulls and Nationally significant numbers of Black Brant, Whimbrels, Western Grebes, Sanderlings, Mew Gulls, and Caspian Terns. One or more adult Bald Eagles are often perched on pilings, sticks, or even mud during low tide at Yaquina Bay embayments (see Sally’s Bend and OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center Nature Trail below) throughout the year. If you are looking for shorebirds, you might follow this advice provided by Darrel Faxon, “At Yaquina Bay best time to look for shorebirds is on the incoming tide, at the latter stages of a mid range high tide (6.5 or lower), or earlier stages of a high range tide (7.0 and higher). But good luck in either case. Since development on the bay about twenty years ago wiped out the high tide roosting area for shorebirds, any time the tide reaches a level higher than about 6.5, the shorebirds have little place to go. As a result, there are often many days during even peak shorebird migration, and at optimum tide, in which there are very few shorebirds present.