Feel free to make your own Sunday contributions in the comments as always; I'll join you when I wake up in a bit ;-)
Every winter we go out to the Olympic Peninsula on the extreme northwest corner of the lower 48 for a week of walking the wild coastline. Even though we stay in a cabin, we take all our raingear because the weather is usually wet and stormy (with an occasional lucky sunny day)...we like that storminess for the giant rough surf, a feature absent from the quiet inland waters of the Salish Sea where we live. This year I decided to pay particular attention to birds.
We stay in a cabin where the road ends at the mouth of the Quillayute River, in the tiny Quileute Indian Reservation. The economy of the Quileutes is based on fishing and tourism, so gulls and crows are abundant in the driftwood along the beach in front of the cabins. The tsunami evacuation sign below the crows is one of many along this coast.
Besides the ubiquitous gulls everywhere along the coast, the most common birds I saw on this trip were Bald Eagles! Several every day, perching or soaring. (Incidentally, I understand there's a football game today...lots of green and blue decorations in the PNW lately, some of which have the shape of a raptor's head, oh what could it be? lol. Birdnote suggests some possibilities for the stylized mascot of the home team, which most closely resembles the Bald Eagle, although usually a "seahawk" is thought of as an osprey).
When pairs of eagles are perched in a tree, usually they are facing different directions. It's like they want to have a 360º surveillance.
There were surprisingly few shorebirds and seabirds. Reports from the open ocean beaches of California and the Eastern Seaboard describe lots more than what I see off this coastline. I'd be very interested to hear the experience of other birders along coastlines, comparing habitat conditions with birds seen. Perhaps the extreme rough seas and shoals here may be a deterrent? Or?
This view of an unidentified cormorant above the surf was typical. Dramatic, but hard to see or identify!
I did see some birds though, which varied by habitat.
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
We spent most of our days walking on sandy or cobbly beaches like this one, with dense impenetrable rainforest inland. Treetops and snags on the edge of the woods are popular raptor perches (that was an eagle way up in that snag, unconerned by beachwalkers going by below). Identifying birds in the woods themselves was a real challenge. On the trails leading to the beaches I could hear some activity but sound is muted in the canopy and foliage. I did hear kinglets, nuthatches, sparrows and wrens.
Sometimes I'd hear or see terrestrial birds foraging in the driftwood where the beach meets the woods. I heard this Hairy Woodpecker before I saw his red crown.
Lots of eagles. These two adults may have been a pair but one was screeching at the other. A challenge? Nesting season is imminent.
Several immature eagles too. This one looks like a first year juvenile, mostly dark,
while this one I'm thinking might be a 3rd year? The partly white tail and dark head suggests 2 or 3 years old, and evenly edged row of flight feathers I've read is more typical of the older birds.
I saw and heard Ravens most days. Once a pair flew right over me. Quick partial photo:
On the sandy beach itself though, very little activity. Plenty of gull tracks, and sometimes signs they'd been scavenging. The only alcid I saw the whole week was this dead one washed up, already partly eaten. I've read of Cassin's Auklets
dying in large numbers off the Pacific coast lately from starvation, possibly caused by changes in the ocean food web as a result of recent warmer than normal water.
Mostly birds were concentrated near rocks emerging from the sand or water. Here a flock of Glaucous-winged gulls and a pair of Black Oystercatchers work a patch of mussels.
The shorelines that were all rocky had more bird activity. It was getting late in the afternoon when we hiked through Hole in the Wall at the end of Rialto beach, so the light and photos are poor, but I could tell this eagle made a successful catch, snatching a fish from a tidepool recently revealed by the ebbing tide.
I saw no shorebirds foraging in the sand on any of the beaches we visited, but a flock of Black Turnstones flew in and foraged on the big rocks.
Even though they are really common birds, it's always beautiful watching gulls among the seastacks. It looks peaceful, but the rusted bits of iron on this rocky stretch is a reminder how dangerous these rocks and stack are. Many shipwrecks.
Up in the quieter waters of the Quillayute and its tributaries, diving birds were easier to see. Looking down the Dickey river where its brown water meets the Quillayute's gray, there were Common Mergansers -
and Brandt's cormorants. The juvenile was following the adult around.
A short walk through old-growth woods to a pond paralleling the river is delightful, and sometimes you can see ducks on the pond, like this pair of Buffleheads. The pond is very close to the ocean but the forest surrounding it dampens all sound.
If we get back from a hike before dark (not often in winter!), we go stand on the jetty at the mouth of the Quillayute. Fishing boats come and go, sometimes a Coast Guard boat heads out to sea to practice maneuvers. Gulls head off to the stacks for the night.
One evening we saw seals and California sea lions fishing. Also a Common Goldeneye, several Western Grebes (rare in the Salish Sea) and White-winged Scoters (also rare). Plus a pair of eagles on the far jetty.
Gulls gather in flocks on the river and the jetties, this being a working fishing village, plus there seem to be plenty of fish coming down the river stirred up by the incoming tide and currents. I identified Western, California and Mew gulls besides the Glaucous-winged.
It's guesswork from shore who's out there beyond the rocks. This photo of seastacks in the afternoon clouds shows at least two seabirds in the surf. I know there are more birds farther out to sea, but that would take a boat. One day maybe!