Welcome home!! Back from my annual trip to Seattle, Washington. My best friend and his wife moved there three years ago; Now I get a great chance every year to visit the Pacific northwest, stay with some friends, drink some IPAs, and of course . . . BIRD!!
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| Space Needle, built 1962, 605 ft tall |
During my four fulls days there, I got chances to bird everyday, at different habitats around downtown and north on I-5. The "city" is so big, with so much traffic, that it really dictates when and where you can go. It's not like Columbus, where everything is 1 minute - 1 mile apart. In Seattle it can take 1 hour to drive 7 miles?!?
So of to the Chase we go . . .
Friday afternoon we drove up to Edmunds Pier/Waterfront, and took the auto ferry over to Kingston. This was my first chance to take the ferry to the other islands, and you get to drive your car right up and park. They leave every 40mins or so and can hold 188 cars and 2000 passengers.
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| Dock at Kingston |
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| Other ferry coming back to Edmunds |
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| Front of boat |
We go up to the top deck and I scope out some waterbirds . . . when I spot a . . .
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| Do I see a Life Bird?!? |
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| Rhinoceros Auklet Lifer #557 FOY |
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| Juvenile |
The rhinoceros auklet is an unusual member of the Alcidae family. It is actually a puffin, not an auklet. The juvenile appears similar to the non-breeding adult, lacking both the feather tufts and beak horn, although the lower mandible is yellow on the adult and dark on the juvenile.
We head north on Hanesville Rd NE, up to Point No Point Lighthouse. Right before the entrance, off to the left is a great parking area with views of the Puget Sound. I spent an hour there and scoped out some great birds. The neigbhors house had bird feeders out, and I saw Eurasian Collored Dove, Western Scrub Jay and Steller's Jay.
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| Western Scrub Jay |
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| Rainbow time |
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| Pacific Loon FOY |
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| Eurasian Collored Dove |
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| Western Scrub Jay |
Right when we're getting to leave, packed up, I hear a loud "Bumff" all the birds take off from the feeder. I look up and here coming in hot chasing a dove . . .
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| Merlin FOY!! |
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| F.c. suckleyi subspecies |
Thanks to my Canon SX50 and the bird landing in the top of the pine, I got these great pictures!
We only had about 90 minutes left til the ferry at 2:30, so we decided to stop at the town of "______" and eat lunch, with IPAs, mussels, fish&chips and clam chowder.
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| Lunch time |
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| #TSB |
On the ferry back to Edmunds, I saw Surf Scoters, Pelagic Cormorants and Heermann's Gull.
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| also called the pelagic shag FOY |
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| all-black with a metallic iridescence |
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| 2 Male 1 Female Surf Scoters |
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| Heermann's Gull FOY |
With that, day 1 was in the books. Oh and the 2:30 ferry back to Seattle, is 14.6 miles from the dock, but took 2 hours coming south back into the city, and then in the city traffic.
This puts my #BIGYEAR2014 number at #342 for the year!!
#336 Pelagic Cormorant--10/17
#337 Pacific Loon
#338 Glaucous-winged Gull
#339 Heermann's Gull
#340 Steller's Jay
#341 Merlin
#342 Rhinoceros Auklet #557 ABA Lifer
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