June 28 - Tokeland and Westport

On our last full day we decided to head east and see where that took us. Edith has always liked to look at small cemeteries on our travels, so this one was our first stop. We didn't go in as we didn't want to add to any erosion that might be occurring. So I just took this photo.



We ended up in a place called Tokeland, a small town of 151 people according to the 2010 census. I assume the name has nothing to do with the recent legalization of marijuana.



There were a good number of Gulls here as this photo illustrates. About 10 minutes later a big guy with a dog came along and scared all the gulls away. The dark looking ones are Heerman's Gulls.

Assorted Gulls - Tokeland WA

These might be pure Western Gulls, or they could be hybrids.

Possible Western Gulls - Tokeland WA

There's no mistaking the Heermann's Gull with the red bill and dark plumage.


Heermann's Gull - Tokeland WA

Here's a short movie of a Heermann's Gull swimming.

A bit later we observed a Caspian Tern (my first of 2018) diving for fish.

Caspian Tern - Tokeland WA - 2018 Bird #183

Caspian Tern - Tokeland WA

After Tokeland there wasn't much to see and the day kind of fizzled out. After dinner in Westport, we made our last evening trip to the Westport beach. 

Off to the west we noticed a large number of birds on the move heading south. They were quite distant and I had the Nikon zoomed out to all 800mm to get some shots. I recognized that these were seabirds on the move, and a bit of research on the IPhone confirmed that they were Sooty Shearwaters.

Sooty Shearwater - Pacific Ocean off Westport WA - 2018 Bird #184

The birds streamed south in numbers for 15 - 20 minutes, counting in the thousands. I like the surreal aspect of this next shot. it looks like they are above clouds rather than water.

Sooty Shearwater - Pacific Ocean off Westport WA 

I took this movie of the spectacle.

Our last memories of this vacation were these birds and the amazing sky and water.