From orcas and cranes to Seattle raptors, unforgettable wildlife awaits those who slow down

written by Cathy Carroll

From everyday urban spaces to remote, windswept landscapes, revelatory wildlife encounters abound—from orcas surfacing around the San Juan Islands and thousands of sandhill cranes dancing and calling in courtship in rural Othello to raptors hunting amid Seattle skyscrapers. Wherever you are, it’s about slowing down, training your eye and tapping into the knowledge of local experts who know these places best. Here are a few standout ways to experience that powerful connection to the natural world.

SEATTLE

The Wild in Plain Sight

Seattle’s David B. Williams, a prolific author of natural history books, encourages city dwellers to discover the wildlife all around them—along freeways, marinas, city parks and their own backyards. The requirement: paying attention. Binoculars help, too. He details this in his latest book, Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Place.

“At Seward Park yesterday, in a span of five minutes, we saw a bald eagle, a barred owl and a pileated woodpecker,” he said. “That’s pretty darn cool to see a 14-inch-tall woodpecker banging his or her head against a tree. We probably all want to do that, but they can handle it.”

What makes urban encounters dramatic, Williams said, is not just the species themselves but their resilience: wild animals thriving amid traffic, noise, concrete and human activity. By simply tuning in—listening for frog choruses near restored wetlands, scanning shorelines for great blue herons hunting along Elliott Bay or noticing eagles returning to the city in late winter—you can witness predator and prey, migration and return, life and death, all without leaving town.

Williams grew up in Seattle and formerly worked as a park ranger in Utah’s Arches National Park. “People would come to the park and ask all these questions: ‘What’s the geology? What’s that plant? What’s that animal?’ I always encouraged people to ask those same questions when they got back home, figuring that the answers were always just as interesting, no matter where you’re from,” he said.

He recommends flocking to Seattle’s Center for Urban Horticulture, adjacent to the Union Bay Natural Area. It draws more than 200 bird species to its wetlands, open water, shoreline, meadow and woodland. Watch for everything from pond-gliding geese and long-legged great blue herons to peregrine falcons diving over-head. Williams offers public talks and walks around the city, too.

Songbirds such as red-winged blackbirds and ruby-crowned kinglets create the soundtrack. As spring approaches, Pacific treefrogs chime in with a chorus of classic “ribbits,” especially in early morning and near sunset.

Even the stone of city buildings offers a glimpse of wild creatures, said Williams, a geologist. Embedded in 150-million-year-old German limestone, cinnamon roll-like swirls are ammonites, fossilized relatives of squid and octopus, extinct for 65 million years. Just glance down at the lobby floor of the Grand Hyatt or the stone walls of Swedish Medical Center’s Cherry Hill Campus and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s concourse A and B food courts, and you’ll find them.

SAN JUAN ISLANDS

Eagles to Orcas

The San Juan Islands are part of the Puget Loop of the Washington State Birding Trail, where more than 200 bird species visit, many only in winter. More pairs of bald eagles nest here than anywhere in the lower forty-eight states. Harlequin ducks sport slate-blue feathers—easy to spot along the shore. Female hooded mergansers’ cinnamon crests offer punk-rock plumage. Trumpeter swans, short-eared owls and northern harriers—hawks with owl-like faces—round out the menagerie.

Look to the Salish Sea in March and April for orcas returning from wintering in Puget Sound or the outer Washington coast. Certain families of Bigg’s killer whales also spend early spring here including one of the most recognizable orcas in the world—Chainsaw. Born in 1978, his dorsal fin has two large notches easily seen from a distance, making him stand out among the black-and-white behemoths.

The islands’ core community of naturalists, captains and researchers know every fin notch and marking of these wild inhabitants. Soak in their expertise aboard tours, which start in mid-February. Pro tip: All the guides talk to each other via radio once they leave the dock, so the chances of spotting whales are equal among outfitters. What varies is the style—from an open-air Zodiac where you wear a padded adventure suit to shield you from the elements, to cozy cabin cruisers where you can sip hot coffee and savor snacks while spotting spouters.

OTHELLO

Sandhill Crane Festival

Each March, nearly 35,000 sandhill cranes arrive in Othello in southeastern Washington, dancing and whooping it up in a sort of bird Bumbershoot. Males and females call out their distinctive “kar-r-r-r-o-o-o!,” bow to each other, flap their wings and spring into the air during courtship as they pause on their journey north. The Sandhill Crane Festival on March 20 through 22 includes talks, tours, hikes and activities with local experts offering insight into one of the Pacific Flyway’s greatest migrations against the backdrop of the Saddle Mountains and sprawling cornfields.