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Photography, sightings, and news about local wildlife here in the San Juan Islands, from whales to birds and everything in between.

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Orca Watcher Photography and Wildlife Musings by Monika Wieland

English - Wildlife Photography, Birding, Whales

http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com

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Orca Watcher · 3d ago

A Bunch of Flowers

A co-worker picked flowers she saw growing along the road yesterday, and brought the bouquet into work today. She was wondering about the identities of some of the flowers, and soon a small crowd had gathered to discuss which flowers we knew and which ones we didn't.There were a few I didn't know, a

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Orca Watcher · 4d ago

The Many Shades of Lupine

I was very intrigued by this recent post by my friend Phil, wherein he tries to get photos of single plants showing flowers in all their stages (bud, bloom, seed). This must have been in my mind on Saturday during a walk at Cattle Point, where I immediately noticed the multi-flowered lupine plants w

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Orca Watcher · 6d ago

A Warbler, An Owl, and A Starling

Last week I got the chance to take another walk at Three Meadows Marsh, and it's amazing how much the bird life had changed in the few weeks since I was there last. This time, there wasn't a single duck, goose, or grebe in site on the lake. Most of the birds identified were heard rather than seen, w

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Orca Watcher · 1W ago

Lots of Spring Walks, Lots of Spring Sightings

Last week Wednesday I got to check on the owlets again with my friend Katie (check out her blog for some awesome owl pics!). It's amazing how much they grew in just one week!We watched them from a distance for about 10 minutes, and the cutest moment was when this little guy stretched, looking more l

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Orca Watcher · 2W ago

Yellow Island Wildflowers ~ 2012

Yesterday afternoon I got to make a trip to Yellow Island, the 11-acre wildflower mecca that sits in San Juan Channel. It's protected by The Nature Conservancy and open to the public year-round, though the peak visitation coincides with the spring wildflower blooms for which the island is famous. Th

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Orca Watcher · 2W ago

Ts, Hummingbird, and More Wildflowers

I've really been lucking out with the weather lately, as it's been drizzly and gray during the week and beautiful and sunny on the weekends. Today was no exception, and it turned out to be quite a pleasant Sunday. After making and enjoying brunch, I heard there were transient orcas in San Juan Chann

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Orca Watcher · 2W ago

Cady Mountain Hike

Today I got the opportunity to go on a hike led by the San Juan County Land Bank at their Cady Mountain Preserve. This Land Bank property is the site of some of the Garry oak habitat restoration work being done on the island. The goal is to one day have walking trails on the preserve open to the pub

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Orca Watcher · 3W ago

It IS a Nest!

I got an exciting message from my friend Katie earlier this week. The barred owl we saw in a tree cavity was actually on a nest! We found this owl in March of last year, and suspected it might be a nest, but by the end of April the owl was gone. This year, it was in the same spot again, but we thoug

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Orca Watcher · 3W ago

Three Meadows Marsh

This afternoon I had the chance to visit Three Meadows Marsh, a private wetland area near where a friend lives. On the way, while running an errand, the birding got off to an excellent start with a western kingbird (168) near the Friday Harbor airport. This is only the second time I've seen one on S

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Orca Watcher · 1M ago

Earth Day Whales and Birds

It's a beautiful spring weekend here on San Juan Island. Yesterday we participated in the Great Island Clean-Up, picking up trash off a local beach, and then attended a community fundraiser for new sports fields. This morning the plan was to watch playoff hockey, but an alert from a friend about res

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