For any use of my photos, please contact me at monika.wieland (at) gmail (dot) com

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Back to Stormy Weather

While yesterday was clear, calm, sunny, and mild, today was the exact opposite: cloudy, windy, rainy, and cold - more what you would expect for the Oregon Coast this time of year. That made birding a bit more difficult but a half day out still yielded some good finds.

A drive along the estuary adjacent to Yaquina Bay led to sightings of some large mixed flocks, perhaps seeking shelter from what was a very stormy looking ocean today. One flock was made up mostly of ruddy ducks and western grebes (99), with a few bufflehead and lesser scaup mixed in for good measure. A little further along was a raft of surf scoters with one pair of white-winged scoters (100) - yay!!

Later in the afternoon I stopped by Yaquina Head Lighthouse where it was so windy I had trouble getting my car door open. I snapped this shot through the open window of the car....


...and the only reason I wanted to get out of the car was to get a better look at these common murres (101) that were all huddled together on the top of a rock. The photo is a bit blurry because it was so windy I couldn't hold the camera still enough!

2 comments:

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Well done on getting the ton up! White winged scoters dohhhh...
Our Guillemots (Murres) not in yet.

cheers

Dave

Monika said...

I was hoping to spot our pigeon guillemots at the coast this week...no such luck on this trip though!