birds of the Tonlé Sap lake [jatp]

the kingfisher and the heron [jatp]

hiking the Dungeness spit

We had a great hike while staying on the Olympic peninsula, walking a sand spit housing the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, located at the end of the Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The sand spit goes into sea for five and a half miles, ending up at a decommissioned lighthouse that has been preserved by a local association, with voluntary keepers staying there one week at a time. Which is a great way to spend a retreat far from the maddening crowd… Except for the few hikers managing the walk to the lighthouse, of course!

The walk is quite easy, on packed sand, provided there is no high tide at the time, and few enough people embark on the eleven miles trip to make it quiet and peaceful. It is a wee bit monotonous, obviously, even though watching for birds and flotsam and jetsam enlivens the trip. Nothing extreme, obviously, but great views on the Olympic National Park peaks. With a cooling wind that hid the strength of the sun. As we discovered too late!

While there are many potential species of birds taking refuge on that preserved spit, we did not see many. Besides the obvious gulls and relatives, a heron, two types of sandpipers, and a loon-like bird at sea. Plus a few seals fishing at sea, clearly not bothered by the potential orcas around the spit. That we sadly did not see.

the raven, the cormorant, and the heron

This morning, on my first lap of the Grand Bassin in Parc de Sceaux, I spotted “the” heron standing at its usual place, on the artificial wetland island created at one end of the canal. When coming back to this spot during the second lap, I could hear the heron calling loudly and saw a raven repeatedly diving near it and a nearby cormorant, who also seemed unhappy with this attitude, judging from the flapping of its wings… After a few dozens of those dives, the raven landed at the other end of the island and this was the end of the canal drama! Unless there was a dead fish landed there, I wonder why the raven was having a go at those two larger birds.

an der schöne blau Donau (#2)