My wife and I spent a couple of days in the Forks area of the Olympic
Peninsula. We found 80 bird species, 8 mammals, 32 species of wildflowers.
Highlights:
*Tufted Puffins ( a lifer for my wife!) at LaPush.
*A Common Merganser female in a creek and tidal channel below Pillar Point
County Park ( Clallam County) She had 3/4 grown young with her- 1st I
counted 18, then 19, finally settling on 24 to 25 ducklings ( egg dumping in
the nest?). They were rushing through the shallows snatching small fish that
may have been sticklebacks.
50+ elk at the east end of Division Street in Forks. We spotted 2 other
bands totaling an additional 60 individuals. I?d say the Roosevelt elk
subspecies is doing quite nicely!
A great trip even in the on again off again rain. The Queets River area
is spectacular.
Steve Ellis
Coupeville, Wa
sellis at coup.wednet.edu