Jaunt Up the Coast

Wednesday dawned sunny and calm, a great day to break away and explore the coast.  We hoped to see the murres at Yaquina Head. We saw them and a lot more!

 At the Yaquina Head Visitor Center parking lot we noticed a few people with long lenses aimed at a cliff. It turned out there is a pair of nesting Peregrine Falcons. This is the female. The male was on the nest, out of sight.

 After awhile, the female switched places with the male on the aerie. This is the male.

 It is estimated that there may be 80,000 Common Murres at the rookery at Yaquina Head. They are kind of the Northern Hemisphere's penguin.

 Two Pelagic Cormorants find a little space among the murres.

Murres are very awkward on land, as their bodies are made to be at sea most of the year.  Dives up to 590 feet deep have been recorded.

Our next stop was Cape Foulweather.  The water is 500 feet below.

 We were hoping to see Gray Whales, but immediately saw Orcas! The pod seemed to only be three individuals.  Judging by the dorsal fin of the one on the right, it appears to be a male.

A rare treat to see these!  We also saw Gray whales further out.

We headed north. A couple miles up the Siletz River is this victorian home built just for the 1971 film "Sometimes a Great Notion", based on Ken Kesey's novel.  We recently saw the movie starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, and we thought it was pretty bad - very Hollywood.

We finished our exploration with a hike to Drift Creek Falls east of Lincoln City.  That suspension bridge for hikers is 200 feet above the chasm. A highlight of the hike has hearing a loud owl calling not far from the trail.  After listening to various owl calls, we determined it to be a Barred Owl, which has a very distinctive call that sounds like, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?"