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Deception Pass State Park, Site 39 from "Puget Loop" of Audubon Washington's Great Washington State Birding Trail

Location: Straddling north end of Whidbey Island and south end of Fidalgo Island, on Highway 20.

Habitat: Marine waters, beaches, lake; old-growth, mixed forest.

Best seasons for birding: Year-round.

Birds commonly seen: Wintering loons steal the show! In pass see rafts of red-throated, Pacific and common loons. Fall to spring, find Brandt's, pelagic and double-crested cormorants; Western and red-necked grebes; Mew, ring-billed and Thayer's gulls; common murres, marbled murrelets, plus black oystercatchers. Year-round in treetops: bald eagles; in forest: red-breasted sapsuckers; downy, hairy and pileated woodpeckers; Northern flickers, plus Pacific wrens, varied thrushes (fall-winter), yellow-rumped warblers.

Viewing tips: West Beach-Cranberry Lake — Walk north for Deception Pass, Strait of Juan de Fuca. Walk south on ADA 1.2-mile Sand Dune Interpretive Trail for yellow and black-throated gray warblers spring-fall. At 0.4 mile take short side path to lake viewing platform for nesting pied-billed grebes plus soras, marsh wrens, cedar waxwings. Above lake: Vaux's swifts spring, fall; ospreys; tree swallows and violet-green swallows in summer. Bonus: harbor seals, harbor porpoise, deer.

Hoypus Hill — Past gate, walk old road 0.8 mile to trailhead for 3-mile main loop in one of state's largest lowland old-growth forests.

Getting there: Beach and lake — From Highway 20 at Milepost 40.8, turn west into state park. Drive 0.4 mile. At T, turn left. Drive 0.8 mile to West Beach parking.

Hoypus Hill — From Highway 20, turn east onto Cornet Bay Road. Drive 1.4 miles to boat-launch parking.

Discover Pass usually required in state parks; free days for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, Jan. 14-16.

Source: Audubon Washington, Great Washington State Birding Trail maps. See maps online (or order hard copies, $4.95 apiece), at wa.audubon.org.