Pelicanidae

Its official. I have successfully managed to see not one but two of my life birds. I will be quick to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the brown pelicans. They are such goofy looking birds so you really wouldn't expect much grace out of them, but it was actually quite the opposite. They fly so quietly and in a small group, focused on finding a good spot to fish. When they find a good spot and catch sight of a fish they drive themselves into a spiraling stoop and dive straight into the water, only to return to the surface moments later with a beak full of water and (hopefully) a fish or two.

Beak full of fish and water!!

 Just like with the snowy owls all it took was one sighting of a pelican and I was off running in the direction it was flying. Alas, it flew over the jetty and disappeared from my sight. No worries, however, because moments later a group of them flew overhead and I was ecstatic. It was just as exciting seeing the pelicans as it was the owls. It is pretty embarrassing when BIRDS give you an adrenaline rush. I am pretty lame, I know. After about a half hour of watching pelicans fly over and a little goofing around at the beach (which involved April and I horribly trying to get a "jumping" picture) we left the jetty and made way for town in search of some much needed sustenance in the form of delicious seafood. Driving down Ocean Shored Blvd on the way to town is actually quite treacherous. Sure you're only going twenty-five miles per hour but there are, and I am really not exaggerating here, mule deer EVERYWHERE. You can be driving along happily minding your own business when out from the bushes prances a heftily sized deer with mate and baby in tow. And let me tell you these deer KNEW we were tourists because when we stopped to coo at the adorable little spotted fawn they totally stopped and ate it all up.

One of my favorite places to eat in Ocean Shores is Bennett's Fish Shack, so naturally that's where we ate!  got my usual but spiced it up this time with a blackberry margarita. Hats off to the bartender because it was pretty tasty, but it was definitely one of those drinks where you squish your face after every sip because its so strong. Needless to say I did NOT finish that on my own. I am a total wimp. If it is not completely fruity I cant drink it. Dinner was delicious, as usual. There is something about jumbo prawns battered in corn dog batter that just makes all the calories completely worth it. It was my splurge for the week and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I should probably elaborate on the beautiful room April managed to score for us. We had an ocean view and a balcony. Yes. A balcony. Totally fancy. Sleeping with the screen door open at night and listening to the ocean was probably one of the best things ever. I wish I could fall asleep to that sound every night.

Balcony! And a foggy ocean in the background. 

The next morning we were back at the jetty and I honestly don't think I have ever seen so many birds in one spot in my life. The end of the breakwater rocks was swarming, and I mean SWARMING with birds. Gulls, pelicans and who knows what else (though I really wanted to find out.)

Seriously. Look at all those birds! Ornithologist heaven!

Jeremy and I braved the rocks and hiked out about halfway along the jetty. We gave up because neither of us are very steady on our feet and I was attempting to do this in flip-flops. Probably not my best decision, but I was determined to get a better view of the pelicans. I settled for parking myself on a rock and waiting for the pelicans to fly over me to get pictures. I was in luck (better luck than I could have ever imagined) because at least ten pelicans decided I was cool enough to fly directly over me allowing me to get some pretty decent pictures.

In the middle of my photo frenzy I caught site of a bird that did not fit in with the plethora of gulls. I think I may have startled Jeremy, who was taking in the sights on his own rock, by yelling: "OH MY GOSH! That was a cormorant!!" I quickly snapped some pictures and later identified it as a double-crested cormorant. It was a good find for me because I had that bird tabbed in my Sibley guide with the hopes of spotting one on my trip. Success.

Double-crested cormorant just before it dove underwater.

The double-crested cormorant in flight.

The tide pools at the jetty were pretty cool. We managed to find a lot of neat little marine invertebrates like sea stars, barnacles and anemones, as pictured below:

Pacific Goose Barnacles

Aggregating Anenomes

Ochre Sea Star

Our last destination before heading home was the beach that leads to Damon Point, which is called protection island. The main purpose of this beach visit was to collect shells for my mom. To my pleasant surprise there was one more species at Ocean Shores that presented itself to me. After picking up a few shells I started hearing the irritated calls of a flock of birds. I foolishly assumed they were gulls and kept shell searching. Eventually Jeremy asked me, "What is that?" as one of the angry birds flew overhead. I didn't even give him an answer. I simply shoved the shell bag at him and took off running with my binoculars in hand, and as I was running off toward the birds I yelled: "Its a tern! A TERN!!" I stumbled across a flock of very grumpy sounding Caspian terns. A very cool find and probably one of the coolest sightings ever (besides my life birds obviously.)

Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

All in all it was a good trip. I am hoping to make several more trips to Ocean Shores in the near future. I would like to make seasonal trips to see what migrating birds I can spot. I would love to see some shearwaters, pestrels and rhinoceros aucklets, but seeing as those are mainly pelagic birds I might be out of luck. I definitely plan on making return trips to see the snowy owls and next Summer I will definitely be back pelican watching. Congratulations, Ocean Shores, on your rich wildlife. Here's to hoping that never changes!