Pacific Northwest – Day 2

Dreary driving conditions on Seattle roads – 10/14/2016 – photo by Greg Miller

Storms today continued to make conditions difficult for birding. The combination of wind and rain is tough to find birds. The remnants of typhoon Songda have not yet reached the Washington Coast.

Trees along Seattle streets are in full color – photo by Greg Miller

Although some of the driving was dreary, soggy, and gray, a few streets were lined with trees in full autumn color.

Discovery Park. Seattle WA. 10/14/2016 – photo by Greg Miller

We started birding today in Nisqually NWR, then stopped at the mouth of the Cedar River, and Marymoor Park, and ended the day at Discovery Park in Seattle. Although we did not add any new birds for the year we did have a birding highlight–a Varied Thrush!

Varied Thrush. Discovery Park. Seattle WA. 10/14/2016 – photo by Denny Lesko

This concludes the 9th tour of 11 one-week tours for my Big Year with Wildside Nature Tours. We have 520 species for the year and 127 species for the trip. This has been a fun week that has whooshed by all too quickly.

Tomorrow participants are flying out of Seattle. I will be joining them. Soon I’ll be on the road again after 3 full days at home. Next comes the Fall Festival at Cape May, then the New Jersey Big Year Tour, and the Rio Grand Valley Birding Festival, and finally the Rio Grande Valley Big Year Tour.