Category: Beyond the Olympic Peninsula

Eagles

Our trip through the San Juans with Puget Sound Express last week included plenty of birdwatching and it didn’t disappoint. The boat trolled near shores of many small islands that Bob Boekelheide, our Audubon bird expert, identified as bird habitat.

We saw dozens of different kinds of waterfowl, loons, grebes, cormorants and more. And I was nearly consumed with envy as other photographers on board zoomed in with their honkin’ big lenses to capture beauty shots of the smaller birds.

But the abundance of eagles throughout the region was no minor compensation for the shots that got away. We saw eagles young and old, in flight and perched.

From the looks of it the San Juan Islands support a robust population of these top raptors. And in the lower left of this shot those are seals, part of a population of at least a dozen that we saw at this location.

Some of them looked better than others. On a rainy afternoon this wet one looked pretty miserable.

Porpoises and dolphins

After our first whale sighting our Puget Sound Express captain, Christopher Hanke, spied dolphins playing in the wake of a nearby boat. He volunteered to see if he might lure them into the wake of our boat and he did just that. Soon we had Pacific white-sided dolphins virtually flying beside and behind the boat.

Porpoises also came along for the fun. They matched the speed of the boat, close to the hull, or nearby in the wake, breaching and leaping as we sped along. This one is either a Dall’s porpoise or a harbor porpoise. Dolphins have sleeker bodies than porpoises and the jaw structure and teeth are different.

I’ve always wanted to see dolphins do this. It was one of my trip highlights.

Orcas

Puget Sound Express (PSE) guarantees that its customers will see whales on their whale watching tours. Their captain and staff stay in contact with other tour boats and make a real effort to find and follow them.

We kept a respectful distance each time we came upon orcas, or killer whales, on two of our three days of travel. This was a pod of five and the PSE staff identified the group. There are both resident and transient pods in our area.

These whales are actually part of the oceanic dolphin family. They surface briefly to breathe. I have a couple dozen shots of their dorsal fins, all that’s left to view if you don’t catch them quickly as they surface.

San Juans here we come

This is a taste of the area through which we cruised with Puget Sound Express last week. We took a (spendy) three day trip but they also offer shorter day tours.

Ours was a birdwatching and wildlife tour and we did plenty of that, zigging and zagging as our onboard naturalist pointed out birding hotspots or the crew trailed and talked about marine mammals. But I was equally taken with the beautiful small and large islands we threaded through on our voyage.

Early April weather in the Pacific Northwest provides only the vaguest hints of spring. Grey skies and light sprinkles reminded us that it could have been much worse. The islands are sheltered enough that winds were light. No choppy seas!

Bob Boekelheide, our Audubon naturalist, even provided commentary on the geology that formed this gorgeous region.

Erin go Bragh!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s an “only in Ireland” shot I took some years ago in a small village south of Dublin.

And I’ll bet you’ll never guess what sort of municipal building this might be.

This is the Garda Siochana.

Still guessing? That’s “Guardian of the Peace” in English. Also known as a police station.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The long view

On a clear day you can look across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and see all the way to the whitecapped Canadian Coastal Mountains. Between here and there are the San Juan Islands and the occasional passing ship.

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Really, I post every day!
I’ve heard from several people lately that they haven’t gotten current posts when they’ve visited this blog. I’ve had the same problem. I spent time with my web host tech support to troubleshoot. According to them, the problem was with my computer system which, they say, is “lazy” and does not automatically refresh to show new posts. I was instructed to clear my browser history (Google “clear browser history” for instructions). This helped but has not solved the problem. I find I can access the current post by hitting the “refresh” button on the browser. Alternatively, click on “Home” on the upper right hand corner of the blog post.

If anyone out there is more technically proficient and can explain why this is occurring and how to fix it, I’d certainly appreciate further information! And, no…a new computer is not in the budget.