Ecola State Park — Tillamook Head

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Roger

After a not-at-all-quick but very tasty lunch in Cannon Beach, we drove a few miles further north to Ecola State Park. The volunteers at Haystack Rock told us we could probably see sea lions there and, in fact, the rocks off the tip of the point were called Sea Lion Rocks.

I’ll end the suspense. We saw no sea lions at Ecola State Park, but it wasn’t for lack of looking or hoping. We did see some incredible scenery. Here’s a sample.

The view from the parking lot.

We walked down into the swale and along that trail on the left. Here’s what it looked like close up. It was a windy day, but not as windy as this picture makes it look.

And here are the Sea Lion Rocks, with no sea lions. So don’t bother looking for them.

This was the view to the south, with Haystack Rock visible in the middle distance.

Here’s another shot looking south from along the path.

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Bird #437 — Brant

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Roger

branta (sheldrake) bernicla (to burn, for its charred dark color)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 — 11:00 am

Cannon Beach, Oregon — Pacific Ocean

This Brant was totally serendipitous. For about six weeks before I headed to Portland, I studied my field guides so I would be prepared to identify all the birds I had a reasonable chance of seeing. But for some reason, the Brant totally slipped my attention. I was aware that they existed, and even knew, had I been asked, that they could be found on the West Coast. But for some reason, it never occurred to me that I’d see one on this trip.

We left Haystack Rock when the swarms of school children arrived. We walked back down the shore and were nearing the lot where we’d parked our car. I saw a lone goose fly in and land on the beach. When I looked at it through my binoculars, I knew immediately what it was, but I was surprised to see it.

The goose walked about while I walked toward it, taking pictures every 10 feet for so. The shot above is my first photo, the one below is my last. It paid me no mind, and I probably could have gotten closer, but my feet were getting wet.

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Bird #436 — Tufted Puffin

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Roger

fratercula (from frater, brother, and –cula, small) cirrhata (curly-headed)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 — 10:19 am

Cannon Beach, Oregon — Pacific Ocean — Haystack Rock

If there was one lifer I really wanted to see on this trip, and there was, it was a Tufted Puffin. And I did see them. Several of them, actually.

Haystack Rock is one of the few places on the Oregon coast where they can be reliably found. They nest in burrows in the grass on top of rocks, which narrows their options considerably because most of the rocks along the coast don’t have grassy tops. In the photo above, most of the white dots on top of the rock are Western Gulls, but some of the smaller ones are Tufted Puffins.

We could see several standing around among the tufts on the north side of Haystack Rock. And, after a while, I could pick them out in the air by their bullet-headed silhouette and their flight style. They are built to swim under water, so their wings are barely large enough to carry them in the air. As a result, they don’t glide — they just flap like mad and go directly to wherever it is they are headed.

My photos didn’t come out well at all. But considering that the Puffins were 235 feet (the height of the rock) above me and I was using a hand-held digital camera on maximum zoom on an overcast, hazy day, I just glad they came out at all.

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Tide Pools

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Roger

About two acres of tide pools were exposed at the base of Haystack Rock when we were there just past low tide. The area is a wildlife refuge, and everything is protected. But you are allowed to walk carefully about and look at stuff. There were several volunteers in red jackets, and we flagged one of them down and asked her some questions about what we were looking at.

Here’s a sampling of what we saw. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

We wandered around for several minutes, but took off when several groups of school kids showed up.

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Bird #435 — Black Oystercatcher

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Roger

haematopus (from haimo, blood, and pous, foot) bachmani (for John Bachman, minister and naturalist who co-authored Quadrupeds of North America with J.J. Audubon)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 — 10:05 am

Cannon Beach, Oregon — Pacific Ocean — Haystack Rock

This one was almost cheating. See that sign on the beach? It has a picture of Black Oystercatchers on it. I was taking this photo when two Black Oystercatchers flew around the corner of one of The Needles and landed on the lower section of rock in the middle back of the photograph.

One of them disappeared quickly, but the other one walked about on the rock for a few minutes. I saw a few others during the day, flying here and there around various rocks on the coast. They were big for a sandpiper-like bird, about the size of a small duck, with long pale legs and a huge, thick bright red bill.

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