Natural History Journal

For even more staggering mountain beauty, we made our way northeast from Olympic National Park , to North Cascades National Park, via idyllic Whidbey Island and the Skagit River Valley.   Catch up on our entire trip here! Part I:  Seabird Colony at Haystack Rock Part II:  Birding the Pacific Northwest Coast Part III:  Inland Valley and Lowland Forests Part IV:  Olympic National Park Part V:  North Cascades National Park Part VI:  Mount Rainier National Park Part VII:  Crater Lake National Park Way back in June, we spent 3 nights camping (and birding) in the North Cascades: here is just a small peek at what we found along the way! The most common birds we encountered were American Robins, Western Tanagers, Pacific Wrens, Hammond's Flycatchers, White-crowned Sparrows, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsuckers, Violet-green Swallows, and Swainson's, Varied and Hermit Thrushes.   Probably the best bird photo from the entire trip: an ordinary White-crowned Sparrow! We also heard wa

At last: We have reached the Mountains!   (Okay, way back in June we reached the mountains... I'm a little behind in my writing.) My home is in the lowlands, but the mountains will forever call my name.  (Literally, for those of you who know me...)  While the Sierra Nevada are my mountains, I feel a particular affinity to all of our western mountain ranges, including the magnificent Cascades of Oregon and Washington. In this fourth installment of posts covering our summer travels in the Pacific Northwest, we will explore the mountains and forests of Olympic National Park. Part I:  Seabird Colony at Haystack Rock Part II:  Pacific Northwest Coast Part III:  Inland Valleys and Lowland Forests Part V:  North Cascades National Park Part VI:  Mount Rainier National Park Part VII:  Crater Lake National Park It might be disloyal of me to say, but it is quite possible that my favorite National Park (of the 30 I have visited) is Washington's Olympic National Park.  From snow-capped mo