Trip down

So, today I rose and shown early, 6:30 am, to catch the 8:05 ferry off the island.  I am spending a few days in Seattle, okay North Bend, before I fly out Monday to the NWRA Symposium in Chicago.  The morning was very brisk and I had to start my day by scraping my windows before I could head to the ferry landing!  Once the sun came out the temps started to go up.  The sun was very bright and beautiful this morning.  I lead to some really good photo ops today.  

Once on the water, Mt. Baker was visible in all its glory.  Even had a lovely little cloud cap right over the peak.  I saw many grebes, gulls, and loons on the water.  I also got to see a harbor seal skim the surface before diving.  That isn't the most exciting part of it.  The exciting part was once it was in the dive turn, I saw a flash of red on the rear left flipper!  This means that is was one of the boys that Wolf Hollow has released, that WAS the exciting part.

Mt. Baker with the cloud cap (click photo to see larger image).

Once I hit mainland I stopped at The Farmhouse to meet with WDFW officer, Jennifer Bohannan to transfer a dead swan to them.  It was one that had hit power lines back at the end of December and we just hadn't gotten it to them.  She was telling me that number counts were pretty high this year, which is exciting, but it also meant they had had a larger number of power line strikes because they are congregating in areas that they haven't in the past.

Here, next to the left stalk of straw is a killdeer that was playing in and out of the field at The Farmhouse.

The rest of the drive went pretty seamless, except the fact that I had to stop in North Kirkland to use the restroom.  Note to self don't drink a 20 ounce coffee and a 20 ounce pop right before you have no options for a bathroom.  Once I was on I-90 I saw a dark morph Red Tailed Hawk sitting in the median right after I got outside of Issaquah.  My brother had told me about this bird, he has seen it once or twice sitting on road kill or something just off the road.  He looked to be doing well and was sitting on something, but because of the slope of the median I couldn't tell what it was.  

I thought about stopping at Snoqualmie Falls on my way into North Bend, but as got closer I saw more and more snow on the ground and decided to forgo that today, maybe tomorrow.

Mt. Si as I got closer to North Bend.

Mt. Si from the North Bend exit (30)

Mt. Si from the driveway of my brother's house.

Now I have settled back in here (my second home), watched the Jays play  and scream at each other out back, a red wing black bird came through, and of course Dark-eyed Oregon Juncos.    I have also already vacuumed the house, and have listened to my other cat, Fally, crying in the living room-- I don't know for what reason.

I don't have much planned for this weekend, just letting it happen as it happens.

I hope you all have a good day and a chance to enjoy some sunshine!