(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Dawn Chorus: Incidentals around the Olympic Peninsula [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-01
My recent trip over to the Olympic Peninsula wasn’t for birding per se but any visit over there will turn up cool birds, and many of them are unknown where I live, just across the water. For some birds, factors like habitat and geography and human activity are more important than proximity. So I was on the lookout wherever we went, and did have some interesting observations.
My destination was the open coast, which meant two ferries and long drives. This satellite image shows where I saw the birds in this report. As you can see, they were all on the water.
1 = Admiralty Inlet, waterway that the ferry crosses between Keystone (Whidbey island) and Port Townsend (OP)
2 = Elwha River mouth
3 = La Push area beaches and Quillayute River
The following is a photodiary of some birdies and activity I saw along the way.
Keystone ferry dock and seen from the ferry to Port Townsend:
Keystone ferry terminal, Whidbey Island
While we waited for our boat I checked out who was hanging out by the shore. Two Northern Harriers were hunting over the wetland across the road. An eagle was sitting a nest by the holding lanes but I couldn’t get any decent pics.
Around the dock were at least dozen Pigeon Guillemots fishing and bathing, along with cormorants, gulls and herons.
Guillemots have brilliant orange legs
This heron was fishing from the riprap directly below the dock. People were walking by and talking 10 feet away. Usually GBHs are much more skittish but this one was clearly habituated to the site.
After loading onto the boat I made my way to the front to see what birds might be in the waterway we were crossing, Admiralty Inlet. Snow-capped Olympic mountains in the distance.
First Rhinoceros auklet, bathing. In full breeding plumage.
Once halfway across, the birds appeared in numbers (they seem to prefer the west side of Admiralty inlet). Rhinoceros auklets flew by in the hundreds. Admiralty, being a constricted waterway, has strong currents, is very productive biologically, and many birds forage there year round.
Red-breasted mergansers. Most ducks have migrated by now but RBs are among the latest to go.
I was thrilled to see a bunch of Bonaparte’s gulls, and in breeding plumage. Bonapartes are almost always found offshore in our waters, so boats are your most likely chance to see them.
Camera focus on gull rather than the auklet and Pelagic cormorant flying by.
More Bonaparte’s
Comparison between Bonaparte’s and Olympic gulls (Glaucous-wingedxWestern)
Elwha River mouth
After arriving in Port Townsend we had some time on our drive across the Peninsula, so we detoured down to where the Elwha River empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’d last been there a decade earlier, soon after the two dams on the river were removed, and a century’s worth of trapped sediment was just starting to wash down to the sea. We wanted to see how the past 10 years has changed the river mouth. There’s a lot more sand, both spreading out into the Strait and piled up vertically, with many channels and much more beach.
Elwha side channel with Strait of Juan de Fuca on right.
Killdeer on upper beach debris. Maybe nesting? There were several in the vicinity.
We saw some perching birds in the willows and alders that line an old dike path that gives access to the river mouth, like this American goldfinch
Yellow-rumped warbler
Red-winged blackbird
Song sparrow
La Push, on the open ocean
We stayed at a cabin on the Quileute Indian reservation by the beach adjacent to the mouth of the Quillayute River. My daughter and her family joined us for a few days. We watched Gray whales foraging in the surf zone, hiked trails and beaches. Saw a few birds too.
Mixed Olympic and Western gulls on Second Beach
Late Surf scoters in the surf off First Beach
Pair of Glaucous-winged? Olympic? gulls posturing on the beach
The vast majority of birds around town were gulls and crows, not surprisingly. Supremely opportunistic wherever people are.
Two Quileute fishermen cleaning their fish in the river. Primarily gulls but also cormorants, seals etc loiter around for the freebies tossed overboard
We very rarely get Western gulls in the inland waters of the Strait and Salish Sea so it’s fun to see them out on the open coast
A dozen Brown pelicans cruised around between the surf and the river. Here’s one over “Gunsight Rock” at the mouth of the Quillayute
Flock of Least sandpipers on the river’s jetty riprap
The White-crowned sparrows were abundant in the brush by the beach. They were starting to nest, lots of back and forth, and interaction.
Sunsets are glorious at the ocean. A flock of ducks flew by just before dark, heading north
Return ferry, Port Townsend to Keystone
From earlier ferry rides I knew most of the birds would be seen shortly after we left the PT dock so I was ready at the bow once we loaded onto the boat.
Brant are rarely seen in the islands where I live, and reports I’ve read are of flyovers. So seeing a few on this crossing was exciting for me. They are fairly common downsound from what I’ve read at the Daily Bucket.
More Rhinoceros auklets, with a Common murre this time. Alcids frequently fly by in mixed groups, just above the surface.
Greater and Lesser scaups, headed north
Very cool to see this late Pacific loon, and in breeding plumage. I only see them like that in the shoulder seasons. If I’m lucky. Unlike Common loons, Pacifics are offshore birds so except on rare occasions I only see them from a boat.
Returning to the Keystone dock where we started
The Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/1/2324270/-Dawn-Chorus-Incidentals-around-the-Olympic-Peninsula?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
