Saturday, November 1, 2008 - Salt Creek - a real GEM
Today we ignored the prediction of rain and drove to Salt Creek County Park west of Port Angeles. This park is a real gem. It was Camp Hayden, part of the coastal defence system to protect Pugent Sound. You can get details at http://www.clallam.net/CountyParks/html/parks_saltcreek.htm .
There are campsites that face the water or backup to the edge of the bluff.  What a view for $16 to $24 per night! Across the Straight of Juan de Fuca is Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. If you tire of the view you can explore the concrete bunkers that housed the 16” guns,
We were there at about noon when the tide was about +5.7 feet. This was the higher low tide for the day revealing little of the tide pools.  A diver was rinsing his gear outside the rest room. He said he always sees Giant Octopus – some with heads as large as a “wash tub”. I don’t know if this was a fish story; but they do grow to 16’ long. The weather was overcast most of the time the sun broke through for a few minutes after a shower past. We had a brief rainbow while my camera was back in the car staying dry.
Scoping the birds in the water and listening overhead, we found the following:
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Mallard
Black Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Surf Scoter
Harlequin duck
Long-tailed Duck
Common Merganser
Black Oystercatcher
Heermann’s Gull
“Olympic” Gull
Marbled Murrelet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Crow
These are all expected this time of year. If the shower had held off a bit more and it had not been lunchtime, we should have had a longer list. This is the site where we found our “life” Townsend’s Warbler and Black Oystercatchers several years ago. That helps make it special to us. The Washington Birding Trails map says that Rhinoceros Auklet nest on the little island off-shore. 
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This rock had a dozen Black Oystercatchers who were joined by 10 more as we watched.
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Harliquins are right below you.
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The far rock in the center is covered with Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants. The size and glossy appearance of the Pelagics makes them easy to seperate in a scope view.
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