During Sydney's memorial, I was able to do some much needed hiking and exploration. In Tucson, it was 116 degrees. In Washington, 59 degrees:) Night and day.
I did some research and made the most of my stay in Seattle and Sequim. Sydney's kids got together and did family things. And I did things both Sydney and I would do if she were still here. She'd hand me the keys to her car and we'd drive. Some places would be new for both of us. Then we'd go visit the places she knew about. How do I know this? She would tell me all the places we would go if we went back to her cabin in Sequim. Her friends also tipped me off about some spaces around Sequim. And I had done some research.
The entire journey was magical. I just wanted to hike and that's exactly what I did. I spent the majority of my time on the trails. In fact, I was so intent on being outside that I went to the grocery store and just bought food to eat in the car. I didn't want to waste my time in restaurants. I had a fridge and microwave back in the room and just loaded it up with road trip lunches. There was one hike where I forgot to eat and almost passed out because I skipped out on breakfast and lunch. That's just how beautiful Washington State is.
The trip was based more on coastal hikes and of course around Sydney's memorial. I spent a night in Seattle so that I could hike around Discovery Park and explore the surrounding coastal area. I arrived in the early afternoon and picked up my rental. Discovery Park was a real treat. There I observed Pileated Woodpeckers and Barred Owls along with my lifer Marbled Murrelets. There are still a few life birds I could pick up in Washington but I wasn't going to drive all over to find them. It was about enjoying the outdoors and discovering why Sydney loved Washington State so much.
The next day I headed 2 hours west of Seattle to the town of Sequim. There are so many great birding hotspots near and around Sequim. Either way, it was hard to pick and choose. So I decided to let old conversations with birders dictate where I should go. One such place was Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. I wanted to hike forever out on the spit into the ocean, but I quickly realized the tide was coming in. So I headed back to the park area.
The next town over is Port Angeles. All I can say is WOW! From some research, I discovered Ediz Hook Reservation for Native Birds. Again this was another place for some magical experiences. An unexpected species for me was a nearby group of Harlequin Ducks on the rocky shore near the Coast Guard station.
As I stood along that rocky shoreline, two large mammals came out of the ocean. They slinked along the shoreline and started digging for food. I just stood there with my mouth open. WOW! My first North American Otters!
Other bird species included a lot of Rhinoceros Auklets, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots and Pacific Loons.
And in these areas, I heard my first weird sounding crows. Once known as a separate species, the Northwestern Crows of the Pacific Northwest have a distinct call. I had forgotten about them until I heard their "accents". There was no doubting that they were crows but they sounded different from other American Crows. This subspecies of American Crow ranges from coastal Washington to Alaska. And they also intermingle with other crows. It was determined last year that the Northwestern Crow was a subspecies and lost species status. And yet on Ebird, they are still countable. That lumping, I am told, will happen sometime this year.
Up the road from Ediz Hook is Olympic National Park. If you're on a tight schedule, both these places can be done in a day out of Port Angeles. It was a magnificent late morning and early afternoon up to a chilly Hurricane Ridge. There was still snow on the ground. The hiking was exceptional and I got ahead of the tourist crowd.
I knew this visit would be particularly difficult as Sydney and I both spoke about this place often. I had moments of tears wishing that we both had gone to visit together. There's just not enough time in this life to do it all. It was a stunning place and one that I wish I had had more time to explore.
I forgot my birding cap at home and picked one up at the Hurricane Ridge visitor center station. Up at this elevation, you can expect to see Townsend's Solitaires, breeding American Pipits, Olympic Marmots, Black-tailed Deer and Sooty Grouse(which I did not) Like the Gunnison's Grouse, I don't mind dipping on these birds because I love having to go back for another visit. I really love the habitats for these 2 birds.
Washington, as you can imagine is night and day from Arizona. Both states are incredibly wild and beautifully dangerous. I love Arizona, but I have to admit that Oregon and Washington are pretty attractive states as well. But the Arizona sunsets, monsoons and well.....everything else are pretty amazing nature wise.
Familiar birds, like the White-crowned Sparrow below, were singing and looking for love in all the right places.
Trees grow large there. I mean there's a reason why they call it the Evergreen State.
If you like gulls, you'll love sifting through all the Olympic Hybrids there. Although there are less hybrids in Washington than there are in Oregon. Western Gulls and Glaucous-winged Gulls like to intermingle. I did find a better number of "pure" Glaucous-winged Gulls. There cannot be ANY black on adult plumage. If there is, you got a hybrid. I did find Heerman's Gulls, which was surprising for me, as well as California and Ring-billed Gulls. So in total, I had 5 species of gull along with the hybrid Olympic group.
Washington State has such diverse habitat. So for this time around, I was able to sample and explore the pacific coast and Seattle. The key to Seattle is knowing when the traffic gets busy. I did well to avoid the bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate. I also like that the airport is located south of Seattle.
Below are my lifer Marbled Murrelets. They breed in the Redwood forests but like to hang around city ports, etc. They are an endangered and protected species due habitat loss. This is my first murrelet species. To be honest, I was combing the ocean for perky stub tails. I can ID a murrelet but don't ask me how they are different from Ancient, Scripps's or Craveri's beyond their ranges:) I hope I get to study them again. I only saw them once during my visit so I was very lucky. These guys below were FAR out and my camera, while wonderful most of the time, was only able to get these ID shots.
Another bird that shocked me was my lifer Black Swift. I was not prepared for that discovery. I knew that they can be seen in Washington but in random spots. On my way to the Dungeness National Wildlife area in Sequim, I drove down a road called Kitchen-Dick. Hooker Road is also nearby. You cannot make this stuff up. Anyhow on Kitchen-Dick, I was driving slowly on the road watching a Bald Eagle's nest and saw this black swift zip around me twice before disappearing. I marked the coordinates down exactly to research when I got back home. Sure enough, on that particular road, Black Swifts had been seen around my observation. I was proud of myself for being quick to ID it. Not much is known about this species but they seem to migrate through the area and/or maybe a pair is nesting there? All I know is that they like to nest behind waterfalls. There are waterfalls in the area but I couldn't tell you where:)
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