New birds for the day – Hooded Merganser

Hooded Merganser – Neah Bay harbour

Today we travelled down the west coast of the Olympic peninsular, from Neah Bay to Quinault. A brief stop at the harbour produced the first new bird of the day – Hooded Merganser. Another one of those birds we thought had got away from us. We had a very entertaining and illuminating coffee stop with a delightful member of the Makah tribe, before heading south. This afternoon we birded the temperate rain forest, producing another potential new bird – a probable Sooty Grouse, and providing much better views of American Dipper and Varied Thrush. Our motel room this evening is situated just a few hundred metres from the worlds largest Sitka Spruce – close on 1000 years old, with a circumference of 60 feet!

A slightly better photo of Varied Thrush – seen this afternoon in the Quinault rainforest