Ocean Shores, WA.

I decided to head to the beach again this weekend in hopes of new birds and much better weather than last week... I was a bit disappointed bird-wise, but the dogs had a lot of fun and definitely slept well last night!

My first stop was the beach behind the Quinault casino...  Sanderlings were flocking to one part of the beach...


Once we were quite a distance away from them I threw a stick for Jake for a bit...



Ralph is definitely not ready for freedom... So he just watched.  Our next stop was Damon Point where the waves are pretty crazy.  This Pelagic Cormorant didn't seem to mind them:


Most of the shorebirds I saw were more Sanderlings...


I did find one Dunlin wandering around a little pond....



In the ocean were loons.  LOTS of loons.  Also some Surf and White-winged Scoters, Red-breasted Mergansers, and gulls, but mostly loons.

I think they were all Common Loons...



Red-breasted Merganser

My next stop was the North Jetty... I didn't see the expected birds, but there were some Killdeer in the grass:


On our way home I drove the Brady Loop off Highway 12.  It wasn't super birdy but I did see a field of swans, mostly Trumpeter!



While I was looking at the swans, a Peregrine Falcon flew overhead and swooped down into another field upsetting a bunch of other birds... Never saw where it went after that, but it brought my January species total to 84!

Comments

  1. I was wondering if you went up to Ocean Shores to try and find the Mountain Plover being reported on Tweeters? I thought about heading up there over the weekend but the six or so hours of driving took the luster off the idea.

    Really nice pictures of the loons by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome shots of the Loon, one of my favorite birds! Another very productive day for you...wow 84 in one month...that has to be a record!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Greg- Yeah, I had directions to where the plover was being seen, but I had REALLY wanted to find the female King Eider at Damon Point. I spent WAY too much time searching for her and decided against going for the plover too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah, with both of those birds in the same area there were probably as many birders as birds!

    Taking advantage of the nice weather on Saturday i followed up on your Harlequin Ducks at Eagle Creek. I had to walk the river up to the foot bridge before locating a single male foraging in the creek. But also came across a couple of Dippers and both Goldeneye in the area.

    Cheers!
    greg

    ReplyDelete
  5. I live in the Ocean Shores area and enjoy the birds a lot. I've got bald eagles roosting the trees in my yard, and hummingbirds year-round. (I blogged about the eagles, with photos, on 17 March.)

    Thanks for the blog... great pictures!

    Robin

    Rusty Ring: Reflections of an Old-Timey Hermit

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment