Bombay Hook NWR

These are some shots from my visit to Bombay Hook NWR on Sept 18. I was hoping to see more shorebirds during their migraiton. On this visit to Bombay Hook we saw a large flock of American Avocets, Egrets, GB Heron, Kingfisher, Dunlins, Sandpipers, Black Bellied Plovers and some Dowitchers. I'm sure there were more birds mixed in the large groups.

AMERICAN AVOCETS

Turtles enjoying the sunlight

These are my critters and to see more critters from all over go and visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters

Thanks to Misty for hosting and thanks for visiting my blog.

Leavenworth

I have another post and more photos from my vacation in the North Cascades, Washington state. This time we are in the Bavarian city of Leavenworth. After riding back to the town of Lake Chelan on the Lady Express boat from Stehekin we hopped back into our rental car and took off for Leavenworth. Leavenworth has been modeled after a Bavarian village and I really love the look. It is located on the eastern slope of the Cascade mountains and is on the Cascade loop and scenic drive. The beautiful Wenatchee River flows next to the city. I was attracted to the city after reading and looking at the Washington State Birding trail map I bought from Audubon of Washington. Leavenworth has many great hotspots for birding. The Leavenworth Nat'l Fish hatchery and the Waterfront Park were two places I decided I had to visit.

In this mosaic, I pictured the American Dipper a lifer for me. The dipper seen on the Icicle Creek likes to hang out in streams and feeds on aquatic insects. Icicle Creek was also were we saw the black bear. The Nat'l Fish hatchery has beautiful grounds, the gazebo and flowers and the beautiful mountains in the background. There had to be hundreds of Cedar Waxwings. Other birds seen were the Evening Grosbeak and the Steller Jay. The goats had a little habitiat and were seen in the city while we were walking back to our hotel from the Waterfront Park.

Lots of stores and restaurants on and around the main street.

The birds I saw at the Leavenworth fish hatchery were mostly yellow in color which is great for my Mellow Yellow Monday entry.

The birds pictured  below are the Western Tanager, Evening Grosbeak, Yellow Warbler all great birds for me.

Female Western Tanager, I really would like to see the colorful male someday.

 Another life bird was the Red Shafted Flicker, I see the Yellow Shafted Flicker on the east coast.

I am linking up with Mary's Mosaic Monday and
Drowsey Monkeys Mellow Yellow Monday  Click on the links to visit these fun memes.

Thanks to both Mary and Drowsey Monkey for hosting and thanks for stopping by to visit my post.

Hike to Coon Lake, Stehekin

On our second day at Stehekin North Cascades National Park, hubby and I took the hike to Coon Lake. There is one road in Stehekin and they have a shuttle that makes a few stops along the way to High Bridge. At High Bridge what I call serious hikers can get on or off the Pacific Crest Trail.
The PCT zigzags from Mexico all the way to Canada. We were on the shuttle with some of these serious hikers.  One 62 year old women was starting off again after her hubby came up on the boat bringing her more supplies. I was amazed she was doing this hike on her own. The Stehekin Landing hotel is a place for some of these hikers to take a break from the trail and hiking. We started off taking the shuttle from our hotel which would take us the eleven miles to the trailhead at High Bridge. High Bridge was a beautiful area. The Stehekin River was a pretty scene and we saw trout spawning. I took some shots while standing on the bridge looking down at the water.

Trout in the river

In this photo below you cna see all the fish swimming along the rivers edge

Stehekin River at High Bridge

Hairy Woodpecker on the trail to Coon Lake

This cute squirrel dropped in to visit with us

View of scenery from the trail

Chipmunk critter on the trail

View of Coon Lake,  a very pretty place to end our hike. Supposedly a very birdie area.
Birds I saw were an unidentified hawk and tons of nuthatches.

More view of the mountains from the trail

We finished the 1.3 hike to Coon Lake and met the shuttle to take us back to our hotel.
I am linking up with Misty Dawn's CAMERA CRITTERS and the Holleys Scenic Sunday Click on my links to visit these great memes to see more critters and beautiful scenes from all over.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my post.

Cascade Loop

These some shots from our recent trip to Washington state. Hubby and I drove around the Cascade loop stopping in various places. After flying into Seattle we hopped right into our rental car and drove to our first nights stay near Marblemount. This part of the drive is next to the Skagit River and is very scenic. We stopped at the overlook for Diablo Lake which has a beautiful torquoise blue color. Even the rivers were a beautiful shade of blue. The color comes from the surrounding glaciers grinding rocks into a fine powder which creates this brilliant torquoise luminosity. Even on the dreary and rainy day we were there the lake's blue color really stood out.

The rivers and trees were just beautiful.

 Some of my other photos included in my mosaic were of some Cedar Waxwings that were in the nearby trees along the overlook. This was the first time I actually saw some juvenile Cedar Waxwings. They were cuties.  The Cedar Waxwings and the Red Breasted Nuthatches were the most common birds we saw. And during our 9 days there we must have heard or saw thousands of them.

I have to mention my dear hubby stood over me holding the umbrella so I could get these shots, isn't he nice. Even the poor birds look wet but still cute. The rain did not stop us from taking walks on the trails the umbrella worked perfect for these times too. After leaving Marblemount we drove onto our next stop along the loop which was Lake Chelan which will be on another post.

We did stop at the town of Winthrop for dinner, which is like an old western town. A neat place to stop and check out the stores, eat dinner and get an ice cream.

To see more cool mosaics visit Mary's Mosaic Monday and to see more of Sally's Blue Monday
thanks Mary and Sally for hosting this fun memes.

I am also link to That's My World.  My vacation in Washington State was going around the Cascade Loop and was my world last week and a half.

Also thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed my post.

American Pipit- Mt Baker, North Cascades

I found this American Pipit during my vacation to Washington state. It was seen during one of our hikes at Artist Point, Mount Baker. The American Pipit breeds on barren mountaintops and tundra. They have a white eye ring and show a streaky breast.

This is my entry for the Friday Ark and Bird Photography weekly, thanks for stopping by my blog and

to see more animals from the ark and more birds click on my links. Thanks to the hosts.