North Coast.


Fact:  Four days at the coast is not enough!  At least Jacob and I were able to avoid much of the Portland weekend heat wave.  Friday morning we hit up Haystack Rock at low tide where the birds were great, the tide pools were awesome, and at least one random bird shop customer was lurking.


 Pelagic Corm

Black Oystercatcher (on eggs)

 Pigeon Guillemot

 Harbor Seal with Harlequin Ducks

 I could have spent all day poking around the tidal pools there.


Not pictured:  Tufted Puffins.  I only took one photo of a puffin because the pools were so distracting.  It was not a good photo. 

Our home base for this trip was Jacob's parents' house in Astoria so we spent some time birding Wireless Road.  There we were psyched to find a ginormous pile of fish guts behind a barn that attracted piles of Bald Eagles, ravens, and gulls.


The eagles and ravens took off when we approached but the gulls let us watch their gluttony.


We stopped by a second time on our way to Fort Stevens one morning to enjoy some more of that great smell.


At Fort Stevens we walked the dogs around at Coffenbury Lake where the target bird was Wrentit.  First there were mosquitoes, then there was a face-stuffing robin.


A robin with a frog!  Wild.  I had no idea this was something that happens.


In the bad photo above you can (kind of) see that it's a little Pacific tree frog. 

We were getting ready to give up on getting a visual of a Wrentit when one finally popped out by the marsh. 


Yay!  Lifer for Jacob.

Sunday morning we went back to Fort Stevens and spent some time at the South Jetty.  Barn Swallows had nests going in the observation structure which is always fun.



Along the trail to the river a young White-crowned Sparrow was following around its parent. 


The tide was pretty low so we poked around the jetty rocks for awhile looking at crabs and tiny things.  These two shore crabs were standing rather close together, then the large one walked over and they interacted, then the large one walked away again.  I wish I understood crab behavior.

 Hi. 

 You pet me.

I pet you.


Bye.


A nice cool fog had rolled in so watching distant birds was not an option, though this Common Loon came in close to the jetty.  Jacob noticed in his photos that it had some fishing line stuck around its bill.  Ugh.


Back on the rocks a Painted lady was getting some rest.


That's about it for photos.  It was a really fun little trip and many thanks to Jacob's parents for letting us use their house! 


Good times!!!

Comments

  1. Whaaaaaa? Jacob's parents are almost my neighbor. I live down the street from there!

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  2. 1. why the template change?
    2. you are making me want to get a macro
    3. jealz of summer HADUs
    4. winning crab quotes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. I missed having a sidebar.
      2. DO IT. Especially after that dragonfly.
      3. They is good.
      4. Thank you.

      Delete
    2. It's all about the sidebar. Welcome home.

      Delete
  3. I always knew robins were vicious killers. Thanks for providing evidence.

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    Replies
    1. Seriously, they are more vicious than I thought. Too bad I missed the one dragging around a chipmunk.

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  4. Tide Pools are awesome so much to discover in one....that robin has a lot of little mouths to feed I'm guessing.

    ReplyDelete

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