Friday, January 2, 2009

Back to the Island


I made it back to the island! After a miserable drive down to Portland along I5, I decided to take the scenic route back north by going up Highway 101 on the Olympic Peninsula instead. It ended up being an all-day adventure due to delayed ferries, but it was far more enjoyable than the traffic and ice-induced delays of my drive down.

At times the highway was still flanked by a foot or more of snow, which made for a beautiful drive while the road winds between the foothills of the Olympic Mountains and Hood Canal. I saw nine bald eagles on the drive, plus several groups of great blue herons and some goldeneyes. I stopped at one pullout to snap a picture of the bald eagles perched on the pilings, and the other photos are from the ferry landing in Port Townsend, looking over the town and the snow-covered hills in the background.

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3 comments:

  1. Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife SafarisJanuary 2, 2009 at 11:43 PM

    Hi Monika
    - Happy New Year - Glad you made it back tthrough the drifts. Looks like we've got one of your glaucous-winged gulls over on our east coast. Too far for me to go and 'twitch' it. I'm not sure of their distribution in the US & Canada but it wasn't in my field guide to the eastern States. How do more American birds end up on our eastern side than the nearer western coast...apparently they 'bounce' off Norway! See http://babb2.blogspot.com/ for more info from one of our local guys who's been to see it.

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  2. troutbirderJanuary 3, 2009 at 1:12 PM

    First time visitor. Very nice and interesting. I have a cousin in Portland and maybe detour thrus the Olympic next summer on my way to visit him and also Fort Clatsop. Looks like beautiful country!

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  3. MonikaJanuary 3, 2009 at 3:59 PM

    Dave - how weird about the glaucous-winged gull! It's a west coast bird here in the US, ranging from the Baja Peninsula in Mexico up through Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. How odd it would go from our west coast to your east coast....

    Troutbirder - thanks for stopping by! If you're out this way in the summer, you should definitely make a weekend of coming up to the San Juan Islands. The beauty up here is unprecedented and its a great season for bird and whale watching.

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