kknight: Hurricane Ridge, June 2006 (washington)
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More photos from Point No Point on November 16

I'll start with the sparrowy birds. This is a Spotted Towhee.

perched Spotted Towhee



towhee in the brush

towhee on a branch


There were a lot of sparrows in the grass, particularly on the edge where it met the brushy area. Many of them were Golden-crowned Sparrows. I find it very satisfying to see these birds because it took me years to see one. I spent part of several summers in Washington when I was young but Golden-crowned Sparrows breed much further north so I never got to see one then. Even after that, most of my visits were in the warm part of the year so I still didn't get to see them. I eventually found a couple at Nisqually NWR at some point. November is a much, much better time to see them though and they were all over the place on this trip.

adult Golden-crowned Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow front view


There were also Song Sparrows which I didn't take many photos of, and Fox Sparrows. Northwestern Fox Sparrows mostly look somewhat different from most of the Fox Sparrows at home.

Fox Sparrow in the grass

Fox Sparrow, front view


This reddish Fox Sparrow looks closer to the ones I see at home

reddish Fox Sparrow




I saw two hummingbirds while I was in Washington. The first one was buzzing around high up in the trees at my friend's house in the rain. I didn't even come close to seeing it well enough to identify. This Anna's Hummingbird was the second one. It was sitting in a place where I was looking almost directly into the sun, so the photos didn't come out all that well and I had to adjust them quite a bit to show the colors at all.

Annas Hummingbird



Annas Hummingbird front view



I saw some chickadees and nuthatches in the woods, but most of the birds I saw where on the water.

There were a lot of grebes, almost all Horned Grebes.

3 Horned Grebes



Horned Grebe


This one is in the process of diving underwater.

diving Horned Grebe


And this one is underwater, just leaving a few bubbles where it was.

no grebe here


They have really red eyes

Grebe with red eyes


I only saw identifiable grebe that wasn't a Horned Grebe. This one is a Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe




There were also ducks, loons, and guillemots.

This is a Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

A Common Loon

Common Loon


A White-winged Scoter

White-winged Scoter


Three Surf Scoters, with a loon in front

Surf Scoters


These two Pigeon Guillemots were way, way, way out in the Sound. They were so far out that I wasn't 100% sure that I was right about what they were until I got home and enlarged the photos to get a better look.

Pigeon Guillemots


I saw a really large flock of gulls. I have no idea which species they were. The gulls I saw closely enough to identify were Herring Gulls but these could have been one of several other species.

really large flock of gulls

gulls in flight

Herring Gull



I saw two mammals at Point No Point. One was this seal, which I think is a Harbor Seal. The other was a huge sea lion. I didn't get a photo of the sea lion and I'm not sure which species it was but it whichever it was, it was a really big one. I talked to a man on the beach who told me he'd seen a large whale the previous day but I didn't see any whales.

seal head
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