While beach combing at Fort Warden, I sat down on a driftwood log and relaxed.
Suddenly, the third guy from the top, in the picture below, came walking over, giving me that
sideways look that a lot of birds do. Then came another, and another,
and another... Before I knew it, I was surrounded by 6 of them. They were
all 5 feet from me. I thought they'd go away when they found I didn't
have any food, but they moved even closer, two of them less than 3 feet away... AND
WENT TO SLEEP! The original sized photos have sooooooo much feather detail in them that I could look at them forever.

http://wildmaven.org/portfolio/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=0

Anyway, I know once you see what kinds of birds they are, you'll say "so what", but being that close made me realize even more how beautiful they really are and how special even common things in nature can be. Later, they were startled and flew away when a hand-holding couple walked by. Go figure...

Sorry for no ID. My book is AWOL and I suck at IDing these guys, haha.

Marian Murdoch
marianmurdoch at yahoo.com
Belfair, WA