With a major winter storm predicted in the Pacific Northwest last week, I wasn’t going to miss any opportunity to get out in the sun. So, I went to the beach last Wednesday, even though birding had been reported slow.
It was slow, but the sunshine and 65° temperature more than compensated for a lack of birds. It’s hard to get that combination at the beach even in the summer where high temperatures often draw in fog, creating cool temperatures and poor lighting.
There were signs that winter is near. Ducks were plentiful, though the distant boom of shotguns being fired didn’t make it easy to get pictures. Simply showing up caused ducks, wisely, to fly so far out that good photos were impossible to get.
Still, I did see one of my favorite birds. There were loons everywhere you looked in Westport, delightfully close to the docks:
There were actually several different types of scoters in Westport, but I only managed to get closeups of this male Surf Scoter,
and this female Surf Scoter.
