And then we were Nine
We met our tour guides and the five other participants in a crowded hotel lobby near the airport. This hotel caters to cruise guests also so the lobby was full of luggage and people waiting for transportation to their ships. The birders could recognize each other because we were all using the neon green tags that were sent to us in advance. I stayed there with the luggage while Dad returned the rental car. Finally the guides, Alex and Chris, showed up and we piled into a van. Thanks to us the luggage area in back was full to overflowing. We left the city of SeaTac and drove to Seattle.
Our first stop was Alki, an urban area that juts out into Puget Sound. Our stops are indicated on the map by red flame symbols.
To get there we passed the industrial district at the south end of Elliott Bay. There we saw giant cranes on the docks. In the channels and bay were huge container ships, cruise ships and fishing boats. We parked in a neighborhood and searched for local songbirds. We found a cooperative Rufous Hummingbird and the expected songbirds and warblers.
The beach had a nice selection of west coast birds, including Black Turnstones and Surfbirds.
We traveled north through the city to Discovery Park, a 534 acre natural area. Situated on Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers spectacular view of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. But all we cared about was birds. We found a lot of land birds, some gulls and a Western Grebe.
After the Seattle tour we drove back south to the airport hotel we started at. This was a good starting point for the next day’s route on the west side of the sound.
Sep 12, 2022 – West Puget Sound & Salish Sea Hotspots
We traveled north from SeaTac, stopping at a few places and only getting the expected land birds and waterfowl. We finally got to the northern two hotspots (flames) shown on the map. Point No Point was named so because this bit of land was hard to see from the deck of a ship and was too shallow and muddy for anchorage, therefore did not qualify as a “point”. The spot included a historic lighthouse and the remaining lens described below.
“On January 10, 1880, the fifth-order Fresnel lens arrived and was installed in the Point No Point Lighthouse. Fresnel lenses capture and direct light by prismatic rings to a central bull’s-eye where it emerges as a single concentrated beam of light. A fifth-order Fresnel lens, used mainly for shoals, reefs, and harbor entrance lights, is one foot, eight inches high, has an inside diameter of one foot, three inches, and weighs approximately 300 pounds. The light at Point No Point, illuminated by a kerosene lamp and 27 feet above grade, was visible for about 10 miles.”
Birds seen at Point No Point included Pigeon Guillemot, Bonaparte’s Gull and Parasitic Jaeger.
The Parasitic Jaeger above is being harrassed by Bonaparte’s Gulls. The Jaeger is a kleptoparasite, stealing food from other species rather hunting for its own. Worse than that, during breeding season on the Arctic tundra, it preys mainly on birds and their eggs. Even when it appears in Waukegan the gulls are on high alert. This bird will harry another bird that has just swallowed prey, forcing it to regurgitate it’s meal. In this case the jaeger finally left, unsatisfied.
The Pigeon Guillemot dives and swims underwater, flapping its wings for propulsion. It catches fish, worms, and crustaceans.
We also had some interesting land birds.
We carried on, stopping here and there at spots the guides had chosen ahead of time. We found more expected birds. We spent the night in Port Angeles.
Sep 13, 2022 – Hurricane Ridge, Neah Bay, & Cape Flattery
The next morning we only had to travel three miles south from the coast to enter Olympic National Park. This first stop was simply a trailhead where we stopped to listen for owls. We were probably too late, at 6:35 am.
By 7:22 am we were in the Olympic Mountains, on Hurricane Ridge. We parked at the Visitor’s Center a spent a while admiring the Olympic Marmot on the slope below us.
We had fun with the Canada Jays, with our guide Alex feeding them weed seeds out of hand.
On the way down the mountain we had to stop for some road work. The flagman was able to tell us right where to stop to see the Sooty Grouse.
From Olympic National Park we headed back north to the coast. We stopped at beaches and jetties along the way. Some of them were familiar from many years ago, however we did not walk out very far on any of them. The highlight was the Wandering Tattler at Neah Bay.
Our last stop of the day was Cape Flattery, “Located in the Makah Reservation, outside Olympic National Park near the town of Neah Bay. The short (¾ miles/1.2 km each way) trail leads through the forest to a viewing platform, perched on a cliff with a dramatic view overlooking the Pacific. Cape Flattery is the Northwest most point on the contiguous United States.”
Actually, after the pleasant walk in the woods there was a very steep and unforgiving staircase down to a small look-out still high above the rocky shore. By now it was getting very foggy and cooler. We were here to see the Black Swift, roosting the nearby sea cliffs and caves. The swifts never appeared but we did get Black Oystercatchers, Surf Scoters and a Pacific Loon, among other species.
Finally, at 6:30, Alex agreed to call it a day. After a supper in a little cafe we drove inland to Forks, WA , to our motel. I was proud of myself for climbing the steps at Cape Flattery and more than ready for a rest.
