Sometimes you gotta go for a walk. I just did and it turned out great.
Yep, I was feeling pretty low, depressed, anemic , whatever, here at Alzheimer's Acre in Port Townsend this evening , so I crawled out to my little truck and drove the 10 minutes out to Fort Worden - always a good idea.
Parking out by the Pt. Wilson lighthouse, I immediately encountered a number of flying termites. The flight of the termites is an annual rite of nature that I have learned to enjoy over the years - happening right now. There were termites flying all over the place down at the dunes. Termites provide a number of services to our community, one of which is to provide slow flying food for birds. They are so easy to catch I even nabbed one myself. I didn't eat it - I was just trying to prove to myself that I still had reflexes.
I staggered down the sandy trail out to the beach - it was near sunset, and calm. Easy to spot birds on the water - I saw the usual evening commuting Rhinos, some Guillemots, and a single Marbled Murrelet in close - this one in bright winter plumage instead of the woodsy breeding plumage of one I saw last week. And then....
And then I saw Flaming Puffin - a Tufted Puffin brilliantly lit by the setting sun - pushing its big honking beak and trailing its goldilocks as it flew by close enough for my best views (although brief) of this species ever. On my way back to the Acre, I was trying to remember the last time I saw one, which I looked up in my ol' life list book to discover that, as I suspected, I hadn't seen one since May of 1973 out on Cape Flattery. Thats just the kind of hotshot birder I am.
Well, that was great and I did feel better as I pulled up to the Acre, and got out of the truck and said hi to a young buck, and a hoppy Cottontail bunny in my folks yard. I did note that the deer and bunny were of nearly identical color - like they buy their fur off the same store rack. More termites flying around too. Just sayin'.
Jeff GibsoninPort Townsend Wa