Seattle Birding And Whale Watch May 2024

Steve here. Cat went out to Seattle for a few weeks to visit our son. They did some birdwatching at several parks and went on a whale watch (opening day for the season!) looking for orcas and gray whales; there were also lots of seals. Whales are notoriously difficult to photograph because they're mostly underwater.

Photos by Cat Branam. You can click on any photo to bring up a gallery of all of them.

Babies

The first one is a duckling, and the second is a gosling.

Turtles

Bald Eagles

A sub-adult and two adults.

An adult feeding on a crab, chased away by the young one.

Yellow-Crowned Sparrow

Blue Heron

Pied-Billed Grebe

Mergansers

Goldeneye Ducks

Sealions and Seals

Sealions crowding a buoy.

A large group of seals on the sandbar. As the boat passed, pandemonium erupted.

White-Winged Scoters

Orcas

These were right off the beachfront houses.

Vashon Island

They took the ferry to Vashon Island (and Maury Island) to see the troll and views. This is Point Robinson Lighthouse on Maury and Mt. Ranier.

Trolls

There are several Thomas Dambo trolls in Seattle (see https://www.nwtrolls.org for info). This is #125, Oscar The Bird King on Vashon Island:

Frankie Feetsplinter in Ballard:

And Bruun Idun in Lincoln Park:

Bruce Lee Grave Site

Bruce and Brandon Lee are buried at Lake View Cemetery.