An old friend once told me San Luis Obispo was his favorite place in California. He would check for SLO jobs weekly in case there was something to apply to that would get him back to his favorite city. Because of this I’ve always wanted to visit, it is a bit of it’s own destination as it’s not too close to either the Bay Area or Los Angeles but located somewhere in between. With an Elephant Seal rookery just north in San Simeon, nearby Hearst Castle, and the Channel Islands an hour to the south there was a lot to see and do on this trip.
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Well if you already knew we had flying squirrels in the Pacific Northwest then I’m impressed. But have you ever seen one? Much like the elusive Mountain Beaver I would probably have had to look it up if you asked me if flying squirrels lived here in Washington. It turns out we have two species, the recently discovered Humboldt Flying Squirrel, and the Northern Flying Squirrel.
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The Channel Islands just off the California coast near Ventura has been a bucket list destination for us for some time. Santa Cruz Island is home to the only endemic island bird in North America, the Island Scrub Jay. It is also home to another endemic species, the Island Fox.
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A short post here to kick off the new year. Early this fall we were quite busy and didn’t have much time for birding or travel (which of course would involve birding!). And besides enjoying our backyard bird feeder visitors, we had a couple of unexpected birding opportunities.
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Our end of summer trip took us up north of the border to Banff, Alberta. Yes it is a popular place, yes it is full of tourists, and yes you should still take the time to visit!
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This summer I took my son on our first overnight backpacking trip. He is nine years old so I searched for hikes that were shorter so that the focus could be on the camping and not the hiking. While I had originally booked a permit to camp by the ocean in Olympic National park, a day before our planned hike a weather pattern brought a ton of rain to the coast right on the historically driest day of the year in Western Washington.
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Just a short post here, we didn’t plan any specific birding adventures this trip to Whidbey. As you know we’ve explored South Whidbey parks as well as Crockett Lake near Coupeville. On this trip we just planned to relax and do some swimming but sometimes nature happens! As we were taking the dogs out a bat dropped out of a tree right on the lawn next to us.
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It’s been a while since our last post, we’ve been busy this summer with camps and trips and theater classes but we’ve taken some good photos and are finally ready to write about them! Our first summer trip was to Winthrop Washington, if you’ve never visited the Methow Valley I urge you to make the trek.
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As school was about to get out it was time to get away for the weekend, trying to find the sun as a cold rainy system decided to come down from Canada we headed south to Devil’s Lake Recreation Area in Lincoln City, Oregon. Devil’s Lake could be any PNW lake on the west side of the cascades surrounded by forest with nice views and plenty of available water activities, but one thing that makes it unique is how close it is to the ocean.
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Well we’ve done a lot of articles, visited a lot of parks, wildlife refuges, as well as traveled out of the country to find birds and wildlife. So we felt it was time to finally list the best spots for birding in our home state of Washington. We’ve got our work cut out for us to do the same for other PNW states as well as Canada but we’ll get to it! As for this list we’ll start with our six favorite spots but may come back later to update if we feel the need to add more.
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