July 24, 2005: Flight Home (Seattle-Minneapolis-Detroit-Buffalo)

The flights home were red-eye (Seattle to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Detroit, and then Detroit to Buffalo) so not many good shots. We did get these two shots of Grand Island, NY....

July 23, 2005: Westport, Washington Pelagic Bird Trip, Mount Rainier

Almost all of today was spent on a pelagic birding trip, heading out 50 miles off shore into the Pacific Ocean into the Gray's Canyon area. This area is a great spot for sea birding.

Our boat was chartered by Westport Seabirds Pelagic Birding. They do several trips throughoug the year for the purpose of locating offshore birds. The group was excellent, and highly reccomended. We saw lots of things (see the official list on their site for 7/23/05), but all the BLACK FOOTED ALBATROSS up close had to have been a highlight!

At one point, we came up near the "Pacific Dove", a fishing vessel based in Westport. Lots of cool birds were hanging around the boat looking for chum, including BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS, NORTHERN FULMAR, TUFTED PUFFIN, WESTERN GULLS, and more.

This trip took all day, with a 5:30AM departure, and getting back into harbor around 4:30PM. It is a rough trip, so bring motion sickness medicine if you are prone to that! It is very much worth it though to see the cool birds!

After a quick seafood meal in Westport, we headed east, to Mount Rainier National Park. We got there late, around 8PM, so we did not have much time, other than to drive around the park quickly, and head into Seattle. This was necessary because we had a red-eye out of Sea-Tac Airport, leaving at 12:15AM

SEABIRD AND OTHER WILDLIFE PHOTOS FROM THE PELAGIC TRIP:

California Gull Humpback Whales Pacific White-Sided Dolphin Above 2: Leach's Storm Petrel

Above 2: Sooty Shearwaters

Above 2: Pink-Footed Shearwaters

Common Murres

The birds below were seen around the "Pacific Dove" fishing boat:

Tufted Puffin

Above 3: Northern Fulmar

Above 3: Black-Footed Albatross
Arriving back in Westport, we found these Brown Pelicans

Mount Rainier Photos:

July 22, 2005: Portland, Oregon (Zoo, Washington Park, Audubon Center)

We started out the morning in Portland. We spent a lot of time in the Washington Park area of the city, which is very nice. One of the sights to see here is the Portland Rose Garden, one of the largest such gardens in the world. The garden also affords a nice view of downtown Portland, and Mount Hood, when conditions are clear enough.

Also in Washington Park, Portland's Oregon Zoo was our next stop. This is a nice zoo, and it is large, so we spent quite some time visiting here. We got quite a few good photos, which are displayed below.

Our next stop, also in the scenic Washington Park area, was the Portland Audubon Society, on Cornell Road. This is another cool place to visit, as they have a nice visitor center, with a library, bird mounts, a few educational raptors, and a very active birdfeeder! (Pictures will be featured below)

For dinner, we ate at Rock Bottom in downtown Portland, and each had a delicious Fish Fry, but with Salmon! We headed in the evening north into Washington, and west to Westport, where we would get a very early start the next morning on a pelagic bird trip!

PORTLAND ROSE GARDEN PHOTOS:

Downtown Portland from the Rose Garden (too cloudy for Mt. Hood)

OREGON ZOO PHOTOS:

Unidentified ibis speciesWhite-Faced IbisStork with mouseCattle EgretTuracoInca TernUnidentified VultureCommon GoldeneyeWhite-Faced Whistling DuckBuffleheadWood Duck (eclipse)Ruddy DuckBald Eagle Kimodo DragonElkSea life at the zoo Penguins at the zoo

BIRD PHOTOS:

Spotted Towhee (Portland Oregon Zoo)

BIRD PHOTOS-Portland Audubon Society Birdfeeder:

Dark-Eyed Junco (Oregon Race)

House Finch

Hairy Woodpecker

Above 3: Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

Above 2: Black-Headed Grosbeak