Yesterday morning I left Alzheimer's Acre, here in Port Townsend, with the purpose of clearing the cobwebs of contact dementia from my head.
Heading to my usual spot, nearby Fort Worden, it didn't take too long to start feeling better. First stop was North Beach, near Point Wilson. Although calm, after some stormy days, huge swells were crashing ashore, which was exciting on the high tide. Not much beach to walk on, so I bopped over to the Marine Science Center nearby.
My first encounter there was with a group of Horned Grebes that were fishing about the pier. As I walked out the pier I wished one of those grebes would come over my way, because one of my favorite things to see is a diving bird underwater. And one grebe made my wish come true, as it dove down into the eelgrass beds just below me. The trick to such viewing is to get a look with a minimum of surface glare - and I did - getting a clear view of the little grebe as it zoomed about.
Never did see it come up with a fish while I was watching. Not for lack of fish though - the eelgrass and waters surrounding the whole pier were swarming with thousands of Herring. I've been fish -watching here all spring and summer, and not too long ago there seemed to be a dip in the Herring viewing, but now they were back in numbers equal to spring - and larger too, after a spring and summer of eating.
Here I will confess to a binocular ichthyology flub, when I Identified thousands of little fish at the Edmonds ferry dock as Salmon (on a 5/9 post), which I later, with closer looks at Port Townsend fish, realized were herring. They both share a similar body plan, but the herring aint got an adipose fin like the salmonoids do. It's hard to id fish seen from above with binoculars, sometimes.
After grebe watching I walked out to the end of the pier and shared the deckrail with a Mew Gull on one side and a Glaucous-winged on the other, all the Heerman's of summer gone now. Out on the calm water were about a dozen Red-breasted Mergansers, some Surf Scoters, two big Common Loons, and quite a few Pigeon Guillemots "svimmin' in dere vinter undervear" as Seattle 'scandihoovian' Stan Boreson might sing.
>From the pier I headed over to check out Point Hudson looking for rocky shore shorebirds. Did n't see any of those but did see a herd of Harlequins (7) and 4 male Buffleheads.
Last stop of the day was on the beach trail south toward the paper mill, where two River Otters were successfully fishing and I saw a big male White-winged Scoter way out there - always neat. While watching the Scoter I noticed busy gulls in the background - they were busy following several Harbor Porpoise's. This has been my year for spotting these smallest of Salish Sea cetaceans - both on the ferry to Edmonds, and here in PT.
This morning, catching North Beach just before the rain hit, I was watching a raft of Surf Scoters just off the beach, when they all took off in a panic as a big California Sea Lion went porpoising by, a pinneped with a purpose. Unlike the moping local Harbor Seals, this critter was going places, and they do cover hundreds of miles in their travels. Maybe the critter was headed to Everett, where the barking of the Sea Dogs (as the late great Clam Clemson used to call 'em) is a common background sound. Come to think of it, I've hardly heard any around ol' Port Townsend, that I remember.
Jeff Gibson snooping aroundPort Townsend Wa