Towheeblog

We spent several hours along the coast north and south of Lincoln City today. The Peregrine family that nests at Yaquina Head was busy:

The first images show a pair in flight together.  Then they landed near one another at the edge of the cliff above the main parking lot by the visitors center. In the perched picture the streaky chest on the left hand bird indicates this year’s fledgling. A third Peregrine was perched on the cliff face in the shade, apparently clutching a dead bird.  To see any of these full screen just lick on chosen image.
At Boiler Bay we watched a pod of gray whales migrating south, coming to the surface, blowing off steam, then sounding:

Nesting Brandt’s Cormorants above, their blue throats visible. Below a panting Black Oystercatcher.Above: Pelagic Cormorants share rock with harbor seals and gulls.  The small ones ate Heermann’s Gulls.  Below: a sequence of murre colony at Yaquina Head.Pigeon Guillemot at Boiler Bay:On the way hoe we passed a White-tailed Kite in Benton County between Philomath and Corvallis along NW 19th Street.
The artist below was painting Boiler Bay.  Wildflowers were bright in the Coast Range forest and along the coast, included foxglove and wild rose.