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Tag Archives: harlequin ducks

Birthday Birds

Willow and I continued our tour of western Washington with a drive around the Olympic Peninsula – an area I haven’t visited in twenty years. It may have been the best weather of the eighteen days on the road. And it was my birthday! Imagine how excited I was to see Brants, a type of goose, along the shore! For me, this is a rare bird and I cannot remember the last time I saw one. They winter on the Washington coast before heading north for the breeding season. I also saw some ducks, a few shorebirds and Black Turnstones too.

Scenes from the Salish Sea

Willow and I spent eighteen days in western Washington last month. Our trip coincided with the notorious weather system sometimes called the pineapple express – lots of rainy days. While the weather was disappointing, we still managed to get in lots of walks and I got to do some wildlife photography, mostly birds. I did make a special trip to see foxes and it was a big disappointment. I only found one fox and it was so habituated to people that it sat in the middle of a county road and begged for food. It was a beautiful animal. When I was in Churchill, they called this a cross fox but here, I learned that it is a color variation of a red fox. Foxes were introduced to this island to reduce the rabbit population. The rabbits are also an introduced species.

Out and About on Lopez

A few scenes from Lopez Island

Harlequin Ducks
Black Oystercatcher
Do you know how hard this is?
As good as it gets
It’s breaking down.
Good girl Luna
Branch manager and assistant branch manager
Now that’s dignified!
Kind of dignified
We couldn’t figure out what they were doing.
Canada Geese and Harlequin Ducks
So many seals
The current kept the kelp in this arrow shaped pattern
Those patterns!
That face!