Day 2 – Diamond Point, Whale watching
from Port Townsend, Crocker Lake and Uncas Road
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| A Gull of some kind.... |
The boat trip didn't depart until 10am,
but it's light enough to bird at 5am, so it was that very early on
Tuesday morning I found myself at Diamond Point pond, east of Port
Angeles, looking for new birds. Unfortunately the weather had other
ideas, with the famed Pacific Northwest marine layer sitting thick
and heavy. So the Tufted Puffins that might have been drifting around Protection Island
remained unseen, with only the occasional Pigeon Guillemot or
Harelquin appearing out of the mist. I added Horned Grebe at the limits
of what was visible, and Ruddy Duck on the pond, but overall it was
rather dire, and the weather didn't improve as I arrived in Port
Townsend, with heavy rain now falling. The boat however was going
anyway, so I grabbed a coffee and prepared for the worst – a dismal
five hours of getting soaked and seeing nothing. It turned out better
than that, and as we zipped across the Juan de Fuca Strait it appeared
to be easing. Boats operate from half a dozen ports around Puget
Sound, from Vancouver downwards, and all of them cooperate by sharing
news of sightings. So it was that on this day a pod of transient
Orcas had been seen in Canadian waters, and in the absence of
sightings further south that's where we headed. This meant a long
trip, but with clearer skies I spent the whole time birding – my
own private pelagic whilst all the other passengers huddled inside
with coffee and cake. There wasn't a massive amount of variety, with
Rhinocerous Auklet dominating heavily, but I added Common Loon and
Marbled Murrulet on the trip out.
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| Rhinocerous Auklet |
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| Pigeon Guillemot |
About two hours later we started to
converge on a number of other boats, and it wasn't too long
afterwards that I was watching Killer Whales. The pod numbered around
six or seven, including at least one calf. I've wanted to see Killer
Whales for ages, and keep on hoping that I'll get lucky on Shetland
on one of my trips up there, but so far it hasn't happened. No need
now though, well and truly done! The calf leapt fully out of the
water at one stage, but I wasn't quick enough to grab a photo, but I
did manage one of its head a little later. After half an hour of
slowly circling to maintain our distance, we reluctantly started the
two hour trip back to base – not the best ratio of boat trip to
seeing Whales, but I could have missed out, and although I had a
reserve day built in I didn't really want to have to take it up.
Once back on land I went and took a few
photos of some Gulls I had seen as the boat arrived in the harbour,
thinking that distantly some had looked rather dark. Heerman's Gull,
I should have guessed, and as Gulls go a pretty decent looking bird.
A mixture of adults and second years mixed in with the usual fare of
Glaucous-winged and Californian, and they were the only ones I saw on
the trip – to be fair I wasn't looking hard. I know some people who
would probably miss out on all the decent forest stuff if they came
over here, and only look at Gulls – I've done the Varied Thrush so
you don't have to lads!
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| Heerman's Gull |
Leaving Port Townsend, I moved inland a
short distance and started to bird some scrub and lakeshore habitat
at Crocker Lake. All sorts of goodies here, with Common Yellowthroat
and Palm Warbler mixing it up with Cedar Waxwing and Hairy
Woodpecker. I managed to pish in a smart Wilson's Warbler here before
slowing driving the length of West Uncas Road, which added Willow
Flycatcher, Western Wood Pewee, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. I went
back to Port Angeles via Diamond Point again, but the weather on the
coast was still lousy and although I could see slightly more there
was still no point. Dinner and bed.
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| White-crowned Sparrow |
