Flattery Rocks National Wildlife Refuge

Photos

Description

Flattery Rocks National Wildlife Refuge | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Scraps of land strewn at the edge of the continent, Flattery Rocks is home to a teeming diversity of life. Puffins nest in crags, while elephant seals rest on rocks, and sea otters dine off-shore. Along with Quillayute Needles and Copalis, Flattery Rocks was set aside by Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 as one of the earliest National Wildlife Refuges in an effort to protect and enhance habitat for struggling seabird populations. Together these Refuges have been designated wilderness and include approximately 800 off-shore rocks, reefs and islands stretching from Cape Flattery in the north to just south of Copalis Head, excepting those that are part of designated Native American reservations. Today the Islands swell with raucous flocks of migrating seabirds in excess of a million during fall and spring migrations. In summer the vast majority of Washington’s breeding seabirds jostle for space on these remote rocks. Black oystercatchers tend pebbly nests at the water’s edge, common murres lay gravity defying eggs on barren ledges, and tufted puffins burrow their nests deep into the loamy bluffs. Kelp beds surrounding the Islands provide territory for a growing reintroduced sea otter population to cavort. When we try to pick out anything by itself , we find it hitched to the everything else in the universe. - John Muir

Contacts

Phone

Address:
Clallam Bay, WA 98326

Website:
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/flattery-rocks