Bellingham - Pacific North West, Day 2

Day 2 and another dawn of coffee and watching the world wake-up, including this Steller's Jay gathering nesting material together, over the road from the house:
















With the family gathered together we headed up to Birch Bay, just south of the border with Canada. Once we'd dropped off dinner in the condo, we went for a walk along the seafront, to this Eagle's nest, you can see an adult Bald Eagle and two youngsters on the nest:














Overhead this Osprey was scouting for a meal:

Helen's family had a school event to attend so we were dropped off in Blaine on the other side of the bay, and caught the Plover ferry across to start a 5.5mile walk back to the condo. Whilst on the ferry we passed-by this nesting colony of Double-Crested Cormorants:

together with this colony of harbour seals:

Having docked, we made our way out along the Semiahmoo Spit and the walk back to the condo. This Bald Eagle was sat waiting for his dinner to come to him by the looks of it:

On the shingle shoreline this Harlequin Duck was taking a snooze, it's a record shot for this area, there's a better snap ahead in the Yellowstone bit...

Along the spit I finally managed to get a decent enough snap of a Killdeer in flight, as I wanted to show the very pale sandy coloured patch at the top of it's tail, which really catches the eye when they fly past (click on the pic for a closer look):

All along the path were broken clam shells and dismembered crabs, the gulls collect them from the water in and around the docks, hover over the path and drop them to break them. All around us were gulls using this trick to get an easier meal, so we were accompanied along the path with constant cracks in front and behind as the clams and crabs fell to their doom.

Dancing in and out of the shrubs on the path was this Savannah Sparrow again showing clearly the small but prominent yellow eye stripe:

At the end of the spit the Great Blue Heron's were gathering, there were ten in these waters by the time we turned a corner out of view:

Most of the walk back included walking alongside the road but for one section there's no pavement (sidewalk) so we had to dodge on and off the road. Red-tailed Hawks it turns out have a very loud call, which alerted us to their being about. There was a pair, probably nested close-by, one taking off just over our heads:

then drifting off:














As we got into the more densely developed area, away from the 'gated communities' a group of nervous Rusty Blackbirds led us away from their young which were recently fledged and mooching around on a lawn. This one flew on to some overhead wires:

The final new bird of the walk was this White-crowned Sparrow, Nuttali, sat on a feeder in a garden:

It was good to be out walking again and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Day 2 ended with a family meal and then the trip back to the house in Bellingham.