GEESE, SWANS, ORCAS AND LOTS OF SUN

It's a strange December when the forecast for Seattle is dry from December 3rd through the 18th....but that's 2017....last winter the rainiest and last summer the driest.

But we will take it......as it makes our days out looking at wildlife much more comfortable than 38 degrees with rain and wind.  

So here are some images from this week.....while the whales preformed beautifully they stayed about 3 miles away so excuse the low quality of the images.  The geese and swans and inverts were much more cooperative.  Orcas are from J Pod and L87 (prehaps more L Pod whales but not identified.

Happy Holidays All

 

TRANSIENT ORCAS VISIT SEATTLE 9-8-17

Transient Orcas returned to central Puget Sound today.  About 8 Transients were seen in the late morning hours passing Elliott Bay, Constellation Marine Reserve in West Seattle and headed toward South Puget Sound.  Transients are mammal eaters...but today they seemed to be in travel mode as they passed by a number of feeding sea lions without giving any notice.  The sea lions seems undisturbed by the orca's presence. Resident Orca pods have not been seen in Puget Sound water or the San Juan Islands since early August....a rather long summer absence.  Residence are salmon eaters and may not be finding enough prey to remain in the area.  Central Puget Sound usually sees the Resident Orcas in the fall when the Chum and Coho salmon return to spawn in local rivers.  Transient Orcas can show up any time.

INTO THE WATERSHED AGAIN....NACHES PEAK LOOP

For those of my readers that think I should stick with postings that are related to Puget Sound....I apologize, but occasionally when things are a bit slow in the marine news area I'm tempted to post something from the mountains.  Well, it's part of the Puget Sound watershed so it sort of fits the blog title.  
Last week was another hike on the Naches Peak Loop trail....one I find myself doing often due to a couple of factors.  First it is a beautiful hike with outstanding views of Mt. Rainier.  Second is it mostly a traffic free drive (this is extremely important if traffic nightmare Seattle area).  Third it is an easy day hike with lots of different habitats including two ponds. And lastly it is relatively uncrowded for a summer hike in Mt. Rainier NP.  All that said last Friday's hike was unusual in the abundance of wildlife....as you may notice from the images below.  

Male Black Bear

Male Black Bear

Black Bear

Cascade Frog

Cascade Frog

Cascade Frog tadpole

Cat Face snow patch on Tatoosh Range

Chipmonk

Cricket on Anemone

Ground Squirrel 

Long-toed Salamander

Black Bear

Noelle with Gray Jays

Sooty Grouse female

Sooty Grouse female

Sooty Grouse juv.

Tiger Beetle

SOLAR ECLIPSE AUGUST 21 2017

It was good planning for Mother Nature to place the path of totality across the high Oregon desert in August when it almost never is cloudy.....however there is often a haze in the air due to forest fires. That was the situation in the weeks before the eclipse date but the wind changed direction and moved the smoke out of the area.  We headed down from Seattle to Warm Spring OR on the 19th and had very little road traffic to deal with....the same held true for the trip home after the eclipse.  I feel very lucky as many people were caught in massive traffic jams both coming and going.  Thanks to friends we had a place to stay 50 north of the path of totality.

The images below will hopefully give you an idea of what we experienced.....my advice..never miss a chance to see a Total Eclipse of the Sun.

Viewing spot for eclipse at Warm Springs Kah-nee-ta

Totality

Partial beginning

Instant that totality was over