A Walk on the Waterfront

The sun finally started producing heat, so I decided to get out of the house and take a walk on the Waterfront Trail. My mistake was forgetting that it's about 20° cooler along the waterfront than at my house, but it was still a lovely sunny day.


The trail runs from City Pier, downtown, along the harbor and eventually to the next city over. It is prime bird-watching territory, with lots of benches from which to watch them. From the bench where I stopped to eat my sandwich I could see a pair of eagles fishing together, a great blue heron gliding to a landing on a piling, cormorants and a loon fishing and dozens of ducks.











American Widgeon











Harlequin Ducks and Seagull


















Bald Eagle Pair










Red-Breasted Merganser












Barrow's Goldeneye


At the beginning of the trail is a small pond with clumps of cattails, water low at this time of year, where mallards nest and raise their families. In warm weather, raccoons come out to beg for handouts from passers-by. Under the canopy of maples, ferns thrive and salmon-berries are just beginning to flower. Outside the harbor, a container ship passes by on its way to Seattle. In the summer, children will play on the beach and swim in the water, but now the tide line is marked by piles of red seaweed, drying in the sun. Days like this are what make small coastal towns great places to live.
















Hanjin container ship bound for Seattle. The hills of Vancouver Island, Canada are in the background.

















A nuclear cloud...or is it nucular?