San Juan Island Part 1

I took a trip up to Washington last month. The purpose was to visit San Juan Island and I was fortunate to get incredibly nice weather. I'll start the photos chronologically and because there are a lot, in this blog post will be the first 2 days of my trip. I flew into Seattle airport and drove up to Anacortes where I camped at Washington park. I made it there just in time for the sunset and my favorite photo of the night was of a house on the water near Sunset beach.

 

I also got a few fall leaf photos in on the first day.  

 

On my second day, I got on the ferry out to Friday Harbor first thing in the morning. I got to watch the sun rise while I waited to drive the car onto to the ferry (which was a first for me!) The ferry ride was nice and I took a few photos of some of the over 400 islands that make up the San Juan Islands. Below is Blakely Island with Frost Island in the background.

 

When I arrived at Friday Harbor I went kayaking in search for Orcas (killer whales). We didn't get to see any orcas, but it was an amazing trip. Below are some photos from the trip.

Herring gull (Larus argentatus) chick and (possible) parent. October is much too late for this young one to be begging for food. Hopefully the parent learns some tough loving techniques!

Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) resting on a rock.

Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) with a lingcod.

Red-breasted merganzer (Mergus serrator)

Harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus)

... Part 2 is coming soon!

Rainy Days

Since it is raining today here in Big Sur, I thought I would come up to town and use the internet. We are still internet-less in Big Creek. The plus side is that it gives me more time to edit my photos!

Today the theme of the photos is sea otters and harbor seals. These photos are from last month in Monterey at Otter Point.

 This is a foraging otter near a hauled out harbor seal. The harbor seal was looking so far back at the otter that he/she fell off the rock right after this picture!

 Two harbor seals. The seal in the water got up on the rock after this photo, which the already hauled out seal did not like- sharing is not what harbor seals are known for.

 This female swam right past me with her prey item in hand. She later was the otter in the above photo with the harbor seal on the rock.

 This female otter was looking for some tasty prey items up in the surf grass.

 A harbor seal resting in the sun in Monterey.

 This is a pup and mom otter- the mom is diving on the left. When she was done eating the abalone, she gave her pup the empty shell to play with and try to get any leftover meat.

 This is a mom and pup otter. The mom is on the right- she is a tagged otter, you can see her yellow tag here.

This is the same mom and pup sharing an abalone. Otters will often break off a corner of the shell when prying the abalone off the rock. In this photo you can see the place where she broke off the shell.