Road Trip 1

We're heading to Five Springs, Wyoming again to paraglide. And it's also an excuse for a road trip. Much as I dislike our automobile obsession, I do enjoy a good road trip. We started by taking the Coho car ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. With all the politics these days we were a little uncertain about traveling to the US but it was as painless as ever. We camped the first night at Dungeness Recreation Area just east of Port Angeles. This was the sunset view looking back to Vancouver Island.

The next morning we stopped at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. I didn't take a lot of photos. There seemed to be more screaming kids than usual, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood. There are always kids at the zoo and I'm always happy to see the interest in animals.

From Tacoma we went around the north side of Mt. Rainier. It was an amazingly clear day and we got a great view of the mountain. It brought back memories of past climbing trips.

Our next campsite was in Yakima Sportsman State Park. We had a swarm of adult and nymph Western Boxelder Bugs near us. I'm not sure why they swarm together like that.

And a Click Beatle on our van.

There was a short wetland nature trail where we saw Red-winged Blackbirds and Yellow Iris (invasive).

Next night was at a tiny campground (Russell Gates Memorial Campground) on the Blackfoot River where we'd stayed a couple of times before.

The Arrowleaf Balsamroot was past its prime but it was attracting quite a few bugs. Which in turn attracted predators like this well camouflaged crab spider.

These bushes were blooming all over, perfuming the campground. iNaturalist says Choke Cherry.

More photos to come but now we're ready to hit the road.

Goslings

The baby Canada Geese are getting bigger. I think of this as the "teenage" stage. Awkward and gangly and losing that baby animal cuteness.

Quite the legs. Heavy and scaled, more like a reptile than a bird.

Rainbow

One of the brighter rainbows I've seen. I only had my telephoto lens which meant I could only capture a little piece of the rainbow.

Harbor Seals

I get a kick out of Harbor Seals, such fat sausages. Lying out on the rocks they look so harmless. You'd think they lived on seaweed. But they're actually carniverous predators that feed on fish. That's easy to believe if they open their mouth and you see their aggressive set of teeth. And if you see them maneuvering at high speed underwater it's easier to view them as hunters.

One day I noticed something floating just off shore. Seals usually show up as two rounded humps sticking up - their head and their back. This was just a single rounded shape.

It turned out it was a seal floating upside down with its head submerged, presumably watching for fish. Eventually it rolled over and showed its head.

I see the most Harbor Seals when I'm out kayaking. Especially in the spring and early summer they tend to haul out on some nearby islands. I avoid getting too close to them and stick to taking photos from a distance with a big telephoto lens. Their eyesight is better underwater than in the air but they still notice me, even at a distance. If they get nervous they go back in the water so I figure if they are staying out, I'm not bothering them too much.

They have quite a range of colors and spots, and the color changes depending on whether they are wet or dry. (Darker when wet.)

With no arms and legs and just small flippers, there's not a lot of variety in seal photos.

See all the photos in this batch

More Otters

I met this otter head on walking down the paved path towards me. We both stopped and looked at each other. The otter headed off the path towards the water. I was pretty sure where it would come out so I went back up the path and over to a point where I could see. Sure enough it emerged from the bushes onto the rocky shore. It definitely knew I was there and looked at me a few times, but I was far enough away I don't think it was too worried.

It rolled around on the rocks for a bit and then swam away. When people go in the water their head is usually the last thing to go under. But when otters enter the water their head is the first thing to go in.

I saw this next otter in the water feeding. It seemed to be working it's way towards me so I waited and sure enough it came to shore just below the path. I thought it was coming out on land to eat, but it didn't have anything.

It was funny to see it shake like a wet dog.

It made it's way up the rocks towards me. It didn't seem to be paying any attention to me although I was only a few feet away.

Why did the otter cross the path? It had a tunnel into the bushes so I'm guessing it had a den in there.

See all the photos in this batch

Birds

This is the time of year for the baby geese but I haven't run into very many when I had my camera. These ones happened to come to shore near me. The light wasn't the best but they're still cute.

Judging from the yellow gape, this sparrow playing peekaboo isn't long out of the nest.

This song sparrow gave me a stare when I interrupted its singing.

For a long time I only saw House Finches at the bird feeder. But gradually I'm spotting them other places.

This robin has a beakful of bugs, perhaps to feed its babies.

I wasn't sure what these starlings were hunting for among the seaweed, but looking at the photos on the computer it seems they were finding Rockweed Isopods (under the rockweed).

I'm still working on my birds in flight.

I've spotted this Cooper's Hawk several times in this same tree. It's always way up near the top. I'm hoping one day I'll find it a little lower down for a better angle.

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A Puddle of Otters

It was cloudy this morning and the water wasn't perfectly smooth so I almost didn't go out kayaking but I'm glad I did. When I first got down to the water I saw a few otters in the water. I thought it was a threesome that I think of as siblings (although I have no evidence of that). Then more began popping up. It's always hard to count them in the water when they're hunting because they constantly dive and resurface.

One of them came out on shore just below me to eat its fish. They don't seem to eat underwater. They can eat while floating on the surface but often they'll come out on shore for chewier items.

I watched them for a little bit but they were moving away so I went back to setting up my kayak. As I was carrying the kayak down to the water to launch I saw there was a group of otters on the island just offshore. I launched the kayak but stayed at a distance and got out my camera. It was hard to tell how many there were, especially at first when "puddle" seemed like quite an appropriate term for a group of otters.

I was far enough away they didn't seem to be worried about me, but gradually more of them became aware of me.

And soon the puddle flowed away into the ocean.

I think I count 16 otters in the photos although it's a little hard to tell. That's definitely the biggest group I've seen, especially out of the water. I assume this is spring socializing leading to mating season. I would not have guessed we have that many otters in the harbor. Usually I see single otters or maybe 2 or 3. But river otters can have quite a large range so maybe some of these came from outside the harbor.

I was going to combine these with other otter photos I've accumulated lately, but these ones seemed a good enough story on their own so I'll post the others separately.