Graysmarsh is a large private estate between Sequim Bay and Dungeness
bordering on the Strait. It is closed to public access except to pick beries
at the U Pick section and about a half mile of beach running south from
Jamestown Beach. The beach section is usually open but is closed during much
or all of hunting season and when the family (I believe it is the Simpson
timber family) is visiting. The family has given permission for the area to
be censused for the CBC and the North American Migrant Census. Since I have
lived here, Scott Atkinson has done the censusing.
The beach can be accessed at the end of Wilcox Road off Woodcock Road.
There is a tiny parking access road at the end where three cars could park if
they pulled to the side but usually one car blocks the entire access. You can
then walk south. There is a sign with a map of the area the public can use.
There is a good border of shrubs and bushes and a conifer grove to the south
which is birdy and the far end of the stretch looks out over the marsh. Last
year a number of Short-eared Owls were there for awhile but you cannot enter
the marsh area itself so that is frustrating. The marsh is a series of ponds
developed as a duck hunting area. The one time the Smiths got permission to
enter and took me in the early summer it was loaded with the usual marsh
birds and had some that were locally unusual.
Bob Norton
Joyce, WA