Tillamook

Last Friday, we left early for a drive up to Tillamook where Gail had an art class on Saturday.  Tillamook, famous for its cows and cheese, is about 2 hrs. and 40 mins. by car. Of course it took us twice that long with little side trips and stops.

 We had lunch at the Blue Heron French Cheese Factory in Tillamook.

 A little outside of Tillamook is this WWII blimp hangar that is claimed to be the largest wooden building in the world.  It is 1,072 feet long and 296 feet high. It had a twin nearby that burned down in the 90's.  The building houses the Tillamook Air Museum.

The plane out front is the Mini Guppy, a cargo plane with a hinged tail section for rolling in heavy equipment.  I remember the  Guppies from my time in Santa Barbara, as they were built there in the 60's.

 We went inside the Mini Guppy which was cool because there was a driving rain which was very loud on the uninsulated shell of the plane. The cockpit, wings, and tail were taken from a Boeing 377.

Inside the hangar it was dark, damp, and cold, as the roof is pretty leaky.  There are a number of Barn Owls living up in the rafters.  There is a classic plane section inside the hangar that is protected in an enclosure.  During WWII, blimps were housed in hangars up and down the coast. Blimps were good at the time for spotting Japanese submarines.  They could even drop depth charges on them.

The ship services lady was very calm, and didn't mind me getting a selfie with her.

Same with the sailor dude.

I'm not sure what this little blimp was doing here, but I think it belongs to some aliens.  The helicopter was for sale.

We stayed in a Air B&B that Gail had picked out. The hostess brought us this wonderful breakfast in the morning.  We ate dinner the night before at Roseanna's Cafe in nearby Oceanside - highly recommended.

While Gail was in her art class, I perused the very well maintained Pioneer Museum.

 After her art class, we drove out to Cape Meares and came across a trail to Oregon's largest Sitka Spruce.

 It had a huge trunk that didn't taper, and some limbs that would be large trees on their own.

 Friday night had driving rain and wind, but Saturday was dry. Looking north from Cape Meares.

 The lighthouse at Cape Meares.

 This spruce is named "The Octopus Tree".

Looking south from Cape Meares towards Haystack Rock.

We took the Three Capes Drive southward and came back out on the 101 at Pacific City.   Stops on the trip also included an annual rummage sale in Lincoln City, and a couple art galleries.  We'll be returning to the area again, as Gail has more art classes in Tillamook.

A Day of Birding

Last Sunday, we spent the day looking for birds, waterfowl mainly, and taking advantage of the sunshine for some photography.  We had done the Audubon Christmas Bird Count with an expert covering the area around Toledo, and decided to return there.  Later in the day, we went to Yaquina Bay in Newport, close to the ocean. From there we headed south stopping at Seal Rock and the port of Waldport.

Yaquina Bay about 6 miles from the ocean, and 2 miles west of Toledo.

 At our first stop, this female Bufflehead scrambled out of the rocks and into the water.  The neck injury wasn't apparent until I enlarged the photo on the computer.  She was probably cold and came ashore. A bare patch of skin the size of a dime can be fatal to waterfowl due to heat loss.

 Belted Kingfisher

 Great Blue Heron

 Female Hooded Merganser with prey.

 A flock of Mallards.

 Red-tailed Hawk

 Dunlin, I believe.

 A flock of Dunlin, I believe.

 Female Hooded Merganser.

 Female Bufflehead.

 Female Ring-necked Duck.

 3 male Hooded Mergansers and a male Bufflehead.

 Male Bufflehead.

 More Dunlin, I think.

A flock of dabbling American Wigeons.

The waterfront park in Toledo. In the center of town is a huge mill that turns logs into cardboard - a smelly operation. In spite of this, there is a lot of bird life in the area.

 2 male Buffleheads on the left, and a female on the right.

 A Spotted Sandpiper, I believe.

 Bufflehead landing.

 Western Grebes.

 Common Loon

 Great Blue Heron

 Killdeer

 Greater Yellowlegs

 Great Egret

 Male Common Goldeneye.

Canada Goose bathing.

The duck with the red head is an Eurasian Wigeon, a rare visitor from Eurasia.  He is with female wigeons that could be Eurasian, but more likely American Wigeons.

 Pied-billed Grebe

 Male Ring-necked Duck.  the neck ring is very faint, but the ring around the bill is not.  A misnamed duck!

 2 male Ring-necked Ducks fighting while 2 females look on.

The fight lasted until they submerged - maybe 10 seconds total.

 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon subspecies).

Male Gadwall.

 We went out to South Jetty in Newport. This view is looking under the Yaquina Bay Bridge into the port of Newport.

Looking the other direction is the bay entrance between 2 jetties.  A week ago, the Dungeness crab fishing boat Mary B II capsized in 12 to 14 foot seas trying to make it over the bar off the end of the jetties.  All 3 crew drowned.  The captain had requested a Coast Guard escort, which had just arrived as the boat capsized.  This was at 10:00 PM, with some waves reaching 20 feet.  The other fishing boats made it in earlier in the afternoon to beat the fast rising swell.  

 Up periscope!

 Common Loon

 Female Common Goldeneye.

 Horned Grebe

A flock of Surf Scoters

 Red-throated Loon

Pretty surf on the other side of North Jetty.

Seal Rock State Park was looking inviting, but few birds of note.

Seal Rock rocks and surf.  Next stop, Waldport.

 Male Hooded Merganser.

 Male Red-breasted Merganser.

 Female Hooded Merganser with fish.

Female Hooded Merganser sporting a stylish haircut.

Well that does it. I took 609 photos, most of which had bad lighting or had subjects too far away.  It was fun having some new sightings such as Canvasback ducks, the Eurasion Wigeon, and the Red-breasted Merganser. The ducks are in their breeding plumage now, making for some great color combinations.