Butterflies, Buddies and Bears, Oh %&#@!

Mount Baker, here today, gone tomorrow

view from living room downstairs 

Had a fun week my friends Robbie & Rhonda, who are in the NW this month, up from California. While they were here they participated in lots of hiking and sight seeing. The Olympic gods were with them as Mount Baker which can't be seen much of the time, was shiny and bright in the Northwestern Sky. It can even be spied from my house... downstairs, blocked a bit by a Corkscrew Oak and a powerpole... but present nevertheless. 

On their last day I drove them to many of my favorite spots to see Bald Eagles. On Holland Road we ran into a swarm of bees . None of us had ever seen a swarm outside of Ticktock. 

When we'd had our fill of the bees, we stopped at one of Sequim's 'Pick Your Own Berries and Lavender' Farms. Loads of Raspberries were picked, and wolfed down later in the day.

Robbie volunteered pick us some raspberries

Of course it is cruel to take someone to a lavender farm and not try out some lavender ice cream so that was next on the agenda. We got the Whitbey Island Ice Cream bars at a 2nd lavender farm, down the road from my house. 

Robbie tryed to convince the hen that ice cream was no good for her

Another day we drove up to Hurricane Ridge at the top of Olympic National Park. While while my

Comma Butterfly

friends hiked the high country, I roamed around closer to the Visitor Center. Spotted a nice 'new to me' butterfly and some Avalanche Lilies.

Avalanche Lilies

Then on our way down from Hurricane Ridge, barely a mile from the top, we spotted a Black Bear. You KNOW that made my month. This is the 3rd spotting of a Black Bear I've seen in the area so I'm thinking the bear population must be kind of HUMONGOUS.

Always a joy to see one of the park Black Bears

The bear had Cocker Spaniel eyes... so soulful,
as well as a mouthful of tasty grass

One of the days I drove them around to my favorite haunts, with the goal of showing them a baldie or three. We caught one in flight over the Holstein dairy farm. I took them around back of the Olympic Game Farm where after Bald Eagle chicks have fledged (left home, i.e., nest) can be seen sitting on fence posts, sometimes a half dozen at a time. But that day, no baldies at all. As a last resort I drove them to Marine Drive, about a mile from my house. Stopping at the roadside, I pointed to an empty branch up high in a coniferous tree that overhung a cliff. 

"Well, you guys are having crap luck today. Sometimes there are as many as a pair of eagles sitting on that horizontal branch..."

On cue, up from the cliffs below winged a massive Bald Eagle juvenile, obediently landing on the branch I'd indicated. 

"Ooops! Take that back, you two are having FANTASTIC luck today!"

Training that baby baldy really paid off big time.

Robbie & Rhonda ended up spending an extra day with me because they awaited a package at the post office. That made me sooo happy, because I so enjoyed having their company for the week. But finally the time came for them to leave. Robbie was to meet up with her hubby Bill up in Vancouver and Rhonda went to visit friends, in the Seattle area? Well somewhere up here. Fun and helpful house guests whom I hope return next summer. I might have a few more critters trained to show up on cue by then, you never know. 

River Otters at Ediz Hook

River Otter, eyes shut, chomping down on seafood brunch

Today I visited Ediz Hook, which is a land spit off Port Angeles. I totally had River Otters on my mind as I discussed them recently with my friend Ingrid, who told me she saw several at the start of the hook. I had also chatted about the otters with another friend who walks the length of the hook frequently. She thinks the River Otters are too rat-like for her liking, which made me laugh. Pointing out they are weasels, not rodents didn't change her mind one bit. So when I reached my favorite parking spot, I was a happily surprised to see a River Otter surface, then dive. Scrambling for my camera, I flung myself out of my car to take some action photos of the fishing River Otter. 

Eating an Eel?

Nom, Nom, Nom...

Diving for 10th helping of seafood entrée

With plenty of shots taken, I figured that was it for the day, settling in my car to gloat over otter photos. Five or ten minutes later, something compelled me to look out the drivers side window, and there, some 15 feet away by my car was the hunchbacked River Otter on dry land. Yes, I immediately lost my #@$&, scurrying out of my car, missing every camera shot I aimed for due to overexcitement. I'd make a crap NatGeo photographer. 

Watching the otter galumphing along by one of the spit's effing feral cat shelters, and then it disappeared for a bit, reappearing on the boat launch parking lot. By that time I was taping the rascal. 
An old fisherman & the otter trotted past each other by no more than 3 feet. Neither paid one whit of attention to the other. Did the fisherman think the otter was a cat or dog? Was the presence of otters here too common for the pair to bother noting one another? Somewhere were lions lying down with lambs or something? I mean, that otter paid zero attention to the old man of the sea. 

Hiking it over to the parking lot, which is bordered by harbor waters on 3 sides I looked and looked, finally seeing the otter surfacing in the harbor and I had a field day photographing it. 

Here is my video of the frisky critter - Dramamine recommended for those without sea legs. 

Dining Room Window, Yard List Magic

Not wearing mutton chop whiskers...
is standing in front of a white blossom

A few weeks ago a distinctive 'Chip! Chip! Chip! Chip....!' rang out from trees near the cottage. The bird remained hidden but I thought it was probably a Chipping Sparrow

A couple of days later I sat in my dining room facing the orchard. A small pale chested sparrow was hopping along the driveway, and my first

thought was 'White-throated Sparrow!'. I know. Wrong. But I was hoping the pale bits included a white throat. It did, but it also included a black eye stripe and a  Weasley-red cap and that cinched its identification as a Chipping Sparrow: new yard bird number 49! 

The photos here are dingy, but then they were shot through a dingy window.

That brings me to early May, sitting at dinner with two friends in the hours approaching twilight, when I spotted a banded, fanned tail of a hawk, shooting up into an orchard tree. I shrieked, scaring the crap out of my friends. A small accipiter hawk was bouncing merrily around in an apple tree. Grabbing my camera for several spectacularly blurry and blotchty shot through yee old dining room window.

Hawk hunched over, facing left, yellow talons

Facing right, looking down, talons on branch

Facing left, bent over downward, with head held
lower than the yellow talons, horizontal tail at far right. 

Upright, facing left, head obscured by branches

So crap photos, but good enough for an identification. While it was in the tree I was certain it was a Sharp-shined hawk, but after the bird flew off I took a good look at the photos. It has distinctive, reddish barred thighs (Sharpies barely show their thighs, which sit higher up on the leg) and the legs are fairly buff in general - Cooper's Hawk. A small one at that so probably a male. Yard bird #50, WOOO HOOO!

That brings us to surprise yard bird #51, spotted flitting about the orchard, looking at first to me like a Yellow Warbler, until I got the binocs out and saw the warbler's cute black hat - a Wilson's Warbler. The bird, which was again photographed through the dining room window was also a first for my Washington State list.

That brings my Yard Bird tally up to 51 birdies - Yippy Skippy! This is all terribly exciting, as I've been in this house for just over 2 years and I'm up to 51 species. For comparison, when I lived in Fair Oaks, California it took me 23 years to get to 47 species.