Cape Flattery & Neah Bay

Happy Thursday, everyone!

I have a some Washington State photos to share, these are from our visit to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. Cape Flattery is the most northwestern spot you can visit in the United States and it is part of the Makah Reservation.


You will need to buy a special permit from the Makah  to hike on the trail to see the Cape Flattery Lighthouse.

A view of the Cape Flattery trail.

The beautiful Pacific Ocean, seen from one of the Cape Flattery overlooks.

A look toward toward the Makah Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Some of the birds seen Western Grebes, various Gulls, Harlequin Ducks, Rhinoceros Auklets, Red-necked Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Cormorants and a Bald Eagle with a fish.

While we were in the area we ate lunch at a restaurant called the Warmhouse in Neah Bay. We had eaten here before back in 2015, they have great milkshakes.  We also enjoyed watching the Bald Eagles right outside the restaurant windows. On this day there had to be 20-30 bald Eagles both adults and juvies. They put on a show for us while ate our lunch.

Neah Bay Bald Eagles. I think one Juvenile Eagle had a fish which attracted all the other eagles. The juvie eagle  held tight onto his fish and was not going to share.

Back at our Ocean Resort and First Beach for the sunset.

"May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace."



My thankful list for today:
I am thankful for good health to hike on trail like the Cape Flattery Trail.
I am thankful for blue skies and lovely weather.


I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Point Wilson Lighthouse

Happy Thursday,

I am continuing our travels in Washington state on this post. We were driving on Route 20 and after taking the Coupeville Ferry we arrived in Port Townsend. We visited the Fort Worden State Park and the Point Wilson Lighthouse in Port Townsend.

These are some images of the lighthouse, beach and birds seen on our walk around the park. It was a cloudy day, luckily no rain during our walk on the beach and around the lighthouse.

The sky blends into the white color of my blog post. This is the Point Wilson Lighthouse, located in Port Townsend Washington.

A walk on the beach, the body of water is the Strait of Juan de Fuca and is at the west entrance to the Puget Sound.

My mosaic shows various birds we saw while walking on the beach and around the grounds of the park. Some are the Common Murre, various Gulls,  Red-necked Grebe, Common Mergansers, Rhinoceros Auklets, Fox Sparrows, Barn Swallow, Oregon Junco and Wilson's Warbler. Click on the mosaic for an enlarged image, the birds look a little better.

Walking on the beach, I had a different view of the lighthouse.

Below is my Lunapic edit of the photo above, I like how the sky changed color.

I loved this rusty old canoe.

My thankful list for today:

It should go without saying, I am thankful to wake up each morning.
I am thankful to be able to travel. Our country has some beautiful places to visit.
I thank you for visiting and your comments.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Saturday's Critters #188

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

If you love critters like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!


For this week's post I am sharing some birds we saw while visiting Sequim and Port Angeles Washington. This was our second trip to this area of Washington state, the last trip was back in 2015. During our visit we went to a few birding spots like the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and the Dungeness Spit, Helen Pond at Three Crabs Road and the Ediz Hook in Port Angeles.

The Dungeness Spit located in Sequim at the Dungeness National Wildlife refuge.

At the Dungeness Nat'l Wildlife Refuge we had to wait out a little rain before we hiked the trail down to the Dungeness Spit. Below are photos of the trail thru the woods, a Rough Skinned Newt, a view of the Dungeness Spit on a cloudy day, driftwood, two Black Oystercatchers, a large group of Cormorants and maybe with a few Mergansers. We found another Rough-skinned Newt on the way back up the trail.

There were signs warning hikers about these Rough-skinned Newts that produce a toxin from their skin. The toxin could irritate your eyes or skin if you should happen to pick up or touch one of these Rough-skinned Newts. They could be seen on the trail or crossing the trail as we walked.

I have a lifer from my 2017 Washington trip it is the Western Sandpiper seen below with the Semipalmated Plover.

Semipalmated Plovers and some Western Sandpipers were seen along Three Crabs Road in Sequim.

We spent the night in Port Angeles Washington and we visited the Ediz Hook, another spit of land. Here we saw a big flock of Brant Geese and lots of Rhinoceros Auklets.

Lots of Brant Geese at the Ediz Hook spit in Port Angeles Washington.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments! I hope you enjoy my post and photos too!



Here is a list of my linky parties;
Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Saturday's Critters #100

Saturday's Critters #100

Hello, we have reached # 100 for my Saturday's Critter linky party.  Thanks so much to everyone who has been with me since the start of Saturday's Critters. I appreciate all my blogging friends who have linked up and joined in with all the critter fun. Who doesn't like critters, they are all so cute! Thank you again to the visitors and for the nice comments.

EDIT: I am linking up with Favorite Fotos thanks to Lydia at Where the Wild Things Were

I am sharing some of the birds and Humpback Whales we saw during our Port Angeles Whale Watching trip during our Washington State visit.

A group of Common Murre being led by a single Rhinoceros Auklet

In the mosaic above is the Rhinoceros Auklet, a common bird seen near the coast of Washington State.

Whale Watching Port Angeles

It was exciting to see 4-5 Humpback Whales during our whale watching trip on Oct 5th.

A young Humpback Whale seen playing with the kelp during our whale watching trip out of Port Angeles, Washington.

The Common Murre were common birds seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This Strait is the body of water between Washington State and Victoria British Columbia Canada. You can see the two red spots on the map included above where our whale watching tour was based.

Another main attraction beside seeing all the whales were the Harbor Seals, Elephant Seals and Sea lions at the Race Rocks  & Lighthouse which is closer to Canada than the USA.

The Race Rocks Reserve includes the marine animals, sea birds and fish. Above the rocks are covered with various Cormorants, mostly the Pelagic Cormorant.

An InLinkz Link-up

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Oregon lifers

 I am linking up a few of my Oregon lifers with Wild Bird Wednesday  and Nature Notes

Three of my lifers were the Rhinceros Auklet, Brandt's Cormorant and the Tufted Puffin all three seen on the Oregon Coast.
 

This photo above of the Rhinoceros Auklet  belongs to Wikipedia_Rhinoceros_Auklet. Seeing the Rhinoceros Auklet below in the Sea Lion Caves made the visit to the caves for me. But, the sea lions were cool too.

It was dark inside the caves, when I notice three of these birds close to where I was standing watching the sea lions. One was an adult feeding two juveniles. My photo is not the best but if you look very hard LOL, you can see a bit of the horn ( present in breeding birds) and the white plumes above the eyes. . I actually had great views with my binocs since they let so much light in and the three birds were only just on the other side of the fence from where I stood.. They feed on small fish and nest in seabird colonies.

Another one of my lifers was the Brandt's Cormorant.  The breeding Brandt's Cormorant has a blue throat pouch. I was able to catch one of the adult Cormorants showing off his/hers pretty blue pouch. They dive for their food and feed off of small fish.

Edit; Sorry, but this Puffin is the town's mascot and is a statue. I did take the photo but it is not a real Puffin. LOL, pretty life-like statue though!  Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock are known to be breeding areas for the Tufted Puffin.

This was another one of my lifers. Not really, LOL! I did not get a photo of it but, we were able to see the Tufted Puffin twice with my binocs flying in and out of the Haystack Rock on Cannon beach. T

he Tufted Puffin is also known as the Crested Puffin. The yellow tufts appear on both sexes during the breeding season. They nest in grassy sides of cliffs or on the grassy side of the Haystack Rock. I did read their feet turn a bright red in the summer.

 Haystack rock  was a big attraction on Cannon beach. At low tides the tidal pools were great and you could see nesting birds all over the rock. This side shows the grassy side at the top of the rock.

To see more beautiful birds and nature photos please visit Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

Thanks to Stewart the host of Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle the host of Nature Notes. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. Happy Birding and I hope the rest of your week is great.