March 9 ~ Birding Semiahmoo

Last weekend we headed off island to run some errands. I thought it would be a ferry ride like any other, but it turned into a very memorable one: after 18 years of riding these ferries regularly, I finally saw orcas from the ferry! And not once, but twice on the same trip!

T124As outside of Friday Harbor

T123s near Blakely Island

While I'm glad that drought is finally broken, I have to say it's actually not so great to see whales from the ferry, because of course the ferry keeps going while I would rather stay and watch!

After getting our errands done, we had enough time to make a visit to one of my favorite regional birding spots at Semiahmoo. As hoped for, we saw a lot of birds, some of them new to the year list, and the icing on the cake was the beautiful evening light.

Common loon

We got a scoter hat trick, seeing all three species there (surf, white-winged, and black).

Black scoters - far away, but awesome because they are uncommon to see. Cameo appearance by a few brant!

White-winged scoter

On our drive we saw multiple pairs of bald eagles at nests - it's that time of year! This one perched on top of the tower at the end of Semiahmoo Spit and was calling to another bird (presumably its mate) flying above it.

It took a little longer than expected to add black-capped chickadee to the photo year list, but I finally got a photo of one. We've only got chestnut-sided chickadees on San Juan Island, and while I've seen several other black-cappeds, there was never a chance to photograph one without the "hand of man" for this year's challenge.

Two of my hoped-for species for the trip to Semiahmoo did not disappoint: greater scaup and brant.

As the light was fading it was getting time to head back for the ferry, but it was hard to leave with scenes like this:

Semiahmoo Spit

Just a couple more photographs before warming up in the car, for good measure:

Killdeer

Northern pintail in flight

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...

The New Adventure: A Boat!

The idea of buying a boat has been in the back of my mind for a while, because after all, I do live on an island! All of a sudden, the right circumstances aligned, and we purchased a 17' Alumaweld Talon with some friends:

You wouldn't think November would be the best time of year to buy a boat - I sure didn't - and it probably isn't the best, but I've been surprised by how many nice days there have been to get out on the water. Don't get me wrong, it's been cold out there! But the water has been pleasant.

I've been telling people the San Juan Island suddenly got a whole lot bigger, because I'll now have a way to explore some of the smaller outer islands. But of course, one of the main goals is to have another platform for wildlife viewing! The birding this time of year is fantastic, as we get a lot of over-wintering sea birds in the Salish Sea.

Pelagic cormorants with a loon fly-by in the background

In fact, it didn't take too long to get my first year bird from the boat - an ancient murrelet (201)!

Ancient murrelet

Surf scoter

A pair of marbled murrelets

I've also gotten to take several trips up towards Spieden Island and it's exotic wildlife, feral populations that have survived from an exotic game ranch that was briefly there several decades ago. There have been literally hundreds of deer and sheep on the southern slopes of Spieden when we've gone by!

A herd of Mouflon sheep and a flock of starlings

Some resting fallow deer, including a couple males with impressive racks

A young male Mouflon sheep

There have been Steller sea lions in the water up by Spieden, too, and on one afternoon there were about 15 of them hauled out at Green Point:

Depending on which way the wind is blowing, we get calmer waters by going either north or south. On one day, we got to head down past Lime Kiln Lighthouse - it's always fun to see my favorite shore-based whale-watching spot from the water!

This time of year, I reasonably thought I might have to wait a few months until I got a chance to see whales from the new boat. Amazingly, it only took about 10 days from when we acquired the boat! With word of a superpod milling in northern Haro Strait on a beautiful sunny morning, I just had to play hooky from work for a few hours and spend a short time with the whales.

It was pretty darn exciting to pull out of the harbor and spot blows on the horizon. Who would be the first whale I'd see from our own boat? Turns out it was L72 Racer:

L72 Racer

Nearby was her son L105 Fluke, adult male K21 Cappuccino, and another young male L84 Nyssa. They were doing long dives and actively foraging, so they were zig-zagging all over the place. Nyssa is part of the group of L-Pod whales that don't make many visits to inland waters, so these are probably the best photos I've ever gotten of him!

L84 Nyssa

L84 Nyssa with Lime Kiln the background

Right before it was time to head back, we stopped the boat to watch the whales slowly mill their way south as they headed away from us. Out of no where, we were surprised by J2 Granny who suddenly popped up right next to us! This, more than anything else, made it feel like our boat had been properly christened!

J2 Granny says hello to Serenity

97, 98, 99.....

As we close in on the end of January (already?!), the year list is closing in on 100 species....here's an update.....

While walking home one day before the snow melted, in addition to seeing another pair of Anna's hummingbirds, I also saw my first golden-crowned kinglets (94) of the year. Upon getting home, I could also see that the dark-eyed juncos had been very active on my deck all day:

While making breakfast on Saturday morning, we spotted a small flock of bushtits (95) out the window - the first time I've ever seen this species from the marina. It was a super windy day, but a report of J-Pod on the west side of San Juan Island inspired me to head out to Lime Kiln Point State Park. I missed the whales, but was greeted by more than a hundred varied thrushes in the parking lot - an amazing sight! There have been a lot of varied thrushes and robins all over the island (more than in past winters, I think), and there has been discussion on the local birding listserv about all the varied thrush activity. Seeing so many in one place on Saturday allowed some photo ops of what can sometimes be a very unapproachable bird:

While admiring the thrushes I also spotted a female hairy woodpecker (96). Down along the water's edge there was a lot of wave action. The bird activity was minimal, but I did find some mew gulls and four white-winged scoters (97) riding the surf:

The wind continued, but there was more bird activity to be seen at a friend's house in the middle of the island on Sunday. In addition to the juncos, towhees, and purple finches at her feeders we saw a pair of trumpter swans, a pair of bald eagles, and a great blue heron - all from her yard! Then, right before it got dark, three California quail (98) came through, too.

There have been some more pretty sunrises lately, and while I had the camera out to photograph one, a flock of geese flew by, allowing for the following snapshot to be taken:

While waiting for an appointment in town, I was watching more robins and varied thrushes out the window when I also saw a downy woodpecker (99) in the trees. Nice!

Hoping to find bird #100, I made a short excursion out to Sportsman Lake yesterday, and on the way had to stop and see Mona, our resident camel on the island.

No #100 yet, but with a week left til the end of the month I'm assuming with a little effort it will happen - maybe this weekend? I wonder what the hundredth species will be? Last year it was the common raven, but that's already on the list this year!

Bluebirds, Lincoln's Sparrows, and More at American Camp

Sunday was another beautiful autumn day, so I headed out for some more afternoon birding at the south end of the island. This time I went to American Camp. My first great find was near the parade grounds where I found three western bluebirds. This species has been reintroduced to the island over the last five years. I got close enough to see the leg bands on one of the birds, and learned that this one was a fledgling from this year from a few miles away. The birds are probably gathering up to flock in places like American Camp before migrating away for a few months.

One stretch of the trail that winds through the prairie is often pretty quite bird-wise, but not so that day. First I saw a northern shrike off in the distance, and then a single western meadowlark flew by - my first one of the winter. In a patch of brambles I also came across a mixed-species flock of sparrows. The most exciting find was two Lincoln's sparrows, but there were also song sparrows, golden-crowned sparrows, and a single fox sparrow.

Down towards the water's edge the first thing that caught my eye was several big rafts of surf scoters.

It was amazing to watch them all diving in unison. At times there would only be one or two dozen birds on the surface, and at other times hundreds. Closer to shore there was also a flock of 75 or so red-breasted mergansers and a few horned grebes. I was also able to spot some common and Pacific loons.

As I made my way along the shoreline I found a mixed flock of black turnstones and surfbirds. They flew over towards Grandma's Cove, so I decided to go that way too to see if there was anything else to see in the cove. Was there ever! Some of the scoters had moved in, creating a huge feeding frenzy in the bay. Mixed in with them were some more loons, grebes, and mergansers, plus harlequin ducks and four gull species: glaucous-winged, mew, Bonaparte's, and a few Heermann's. It was quite a spectacle, and I probably sat on the bluff watching them all feeding for about 20 minutes.

Part of the Grandma's Cove feeding flock: mostly surf scoters, but some mergansers and a Pacific loon are in this shot, too

Back on the home front there has also been lots of birding activity. The other morning I saw a Townsend's warbler out the window on the embankment - the first time I've ever seen this species from the marina. When I went out to try and get a photo it was already too far away, but an ever-bold red-breasted nuthatch landed on our new feeder just a few feet away from me.

Other regular visitors have been chestnut-backed chickadees, house sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, and, unfortunately rock pigeons. The pigeons were a novel species in the spring but wore out their welcome in just a couple days. Not only do they eat a lot of seed, poop all over the deck, and scare away some of the other, smaller native birds for whom the feeders are intended, but they've started digging through the planters, uprooting plants, and throwing dirt all over the deck, too. One reason for the new feeder was to transition away from the tray feeder that they have easiest access too, but unfortunately one bird at least has figured out how to hold onto this new hanging feeder. Ah well.

October Orcas (and other Autumn Animals)

With the L2s, L5s, and L54s on the westside yesterday, we decided to go to bundle up against the chilly autumn breeze and head to Lime Kiln to hang out for a while to try and see them. Unwilling to admit that summer is over, we settled in on our favorite rocks to read for a couple hours. The whales were several miles to the north and slowly heading our direction, so the prospect of seeing them made it a little easier to wait. In the meantime, just like on my previous trip to the westside, there was lots of other wildlife to look at. Here's a look at a few of the gull species that are common here in the fall:

Heermann's gull

California gull

Mew gull

The gulls were hanging out hoping to take advantage of some food scraps made available by the foraging harbor seals. It was fun to watch the gulls soaring about 15 feet above the water, and based on their actions it was possible to predict where the seals were going to pop up (presumably the gulls could see the seals underwater). The gulls either didn't see or didn't care about this seal pup that popped up inside the kelp beds off the lighthouse, and I almost missed it as well - it was one of those moments where you wonder who is watching whom?

The careful observe could find a few other bird species, too. A rhinoceros auklet dove in the bay to the north of the lighthouse. A loon flew by, and so did these scoters:

A black oystercatcher also made an uncharacteristically quiet appearance, feeding on snails on the rocks just below the lighthouse:

Eventually the very spread out, very slow moving orcas did show up, foraging as they made their way south. The L12s had just made their way in to the San Juans past Victoria, and Js and Ks were heading north out of Admiralty Inlet, so with all three groups of whales on a collision course I was a little surprised that the group of whales we saw wasn't traveling a little faster to go meet up with everyone else. But, they didn't seem to be in any hurry.

The whale that came closest to shore was L78 Gaia, a big male who looked especially big yesterday:

The last group of whales to come by was L54 Ino and her two youngest offspring, L108 Coho and unnamed calf L117. (For those keeping track, Ino's other son L100 Indigo was there, too, just a little ahead of this trio.) The three of them were actively foraging, doing all kinds of circling and lunging at the surface. It looked like they were successful, because the gulls started doing the same thing to the whales that they had been doing to the seals earlier: hovering up above where they were underwater, and swooping down the surface to pick up scraps of fish. It was fun to watch.

Mama L54 Ino on the left, with calf L117 surfacing in the slipstream of older sibling L108 Coho on the right.

It's common for resident whales to prey share, so presumably Ino was catching fish and sharing them with at least Coho. Some of the circling behavior could have been whales converging to tear up the fish. Since there was so much surface activity, I wonder if Coho was playing with a fish that was still alive, or perhaps the little calf was getting an early training session. How cool it would have been to see what was going on underwater to correspond with all the lunges, rolls, and dives we saw at the surface.

Eventually the whales did continue south, and it wasn't until then that I realized just how chilly I was! It was time to go home and crank the heater in the car on the drive back. Later in the evening, I listened to the whales on the hydrophones for about an hour, and it sounded like all three groups did indeed meet up. Based on the vocalizations alone, they were having quite a superpod party!