Birthday Bird Day

We've been super busy moving and fixing up the new house we just purchased, so I haven't been blogging much (or taking that many photos!). But since today's my birthday and the sun was shining, we decided to take a break from working on the house and get out on the water to do some bird and wildlife watching. It was beautiful out there! 

All the winter birds are starting to show back up, including loons, grebes, scoters, mergansers, and bufflehead.

Red-breasted mergansers in flight

Surf scoters in flight

Up in Spieden Channel we also came across a flock of about 1000 Bonaparte's gulls, one of my favorite species to photograph!

I also got the chance to photograph some marbled murrelets, a species that has typically been pretty elusive for me when it comes to taking pictures.

Marbled murrelet

 

 There were also hundreds of fallow deer and Mouflon sheep out on Spieden Island, close to the shoreline and just begging to be photographed...

Mouflon sheep ram

Young fallow deer

One of many mixed herds of both species

On the way back we came across a haul out with dozens of harbor seals.

And back towards the dock I had to stop to take a photo of this odd conglomeration of species - crows, a gull, and a cormorant in one frame! 

All in all it was a beautiful couple hours on the water and we tallied 20 bird species - not bad! I'm glad we got out there when we did because it looks like the clouds are all moving back in now.

There won't be such a gap before my next blog post, as my annual Day of the Dead tribute to the Southern Residents we've lost this year is just a few days away, and this year there is much to say...