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So Fly PNW Posts

Hyas Lake, An Entry Point to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

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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Whidbey Island Lizards and Bats

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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Taking the North Cascade Highway to the Methow Valley

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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Devil’s Lake Recreation Area Bogs and Birding

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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Best Spots for Birding in Washington State

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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The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and the Return of the Rufous

We finally took our first visit to the popular Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and were welcomed by many Rufous Hummingbirds who have migrated north for the season! Ridgefield is just north of Vancouver (Washington not BC), and is nestled next to the Columbia River where a broad wetland area exists both on the Washington and Oregon side of the river.

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A Migrating Visitor to the Puget Sound

No I’m not talking about Snowbirders returning from Arizona, though I’m sure there are plenty of those as well. Spring has fully arrived and with Spring time weather we get bird migration! While the Puget Sound area may not be a hot bed for migration bird viewing we still get our spring and fall stop overs. With some sunny weather we headed down to the Willow Creek Fish Hatchery and the Edmonds Marsh to enjoy the day and see what birds would be out.

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A Visit to Zion and Arches National Parks

For our annual spring break trip we wanted to head some where warm with the Scamp, and being early April we knew we had to head pretty far south to find some sunshine. With only one week we could not visit all of the Mighty Five National Parks in Utah, so we chose Zion and Arches National Parks to split up the trip between the west and east side of Southern Utah.

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An Unusually Hot Early Spring Weekend Visit to Spada Lake

Making the most of a rare, sunny spring weekend in Seattle, I dedicated most of my Saturday to taking care of household chores and yard work. As a little treat for myself after all that effort, I decided to plan a Sunday morning hike. Even though my kids usually loath morning hikes (or any hikes for that matter), they surprised me this time by being real troopers.

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Placencia and the Cockscomb Basin Belize

Our final destination in Belize was of course the coast! While many travel to San Pedro to see the Caribbean in Belize we instead chose Placencia, a charming little town at the very tip of a peninsula in southern Belize. Not too far from Placencia, nestled in the jungle, lies the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary – an incredible spot for wildlife viewing.

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