With a beautiful day at hand we traveled north from Friday Harbor up San Juan channel seeing groups of Harbor Seals, pairs of Rhinoceros Auklets and a few Harbor Porpoise.
We eventually found ourselves on the west side of Stuart Island watching the small nesting colony of Pelagic Cormorants when we notice one of the Peregrine Falcons that are nesting in the higher reaches of the cliff side.
Peregrines are are small rapture at about 18 inches high but one of the more fascinating. The Peregrines in our area feed primarily on seabirds. Their eyesight is 8 times better than humans which means they can see small seabirds easily at 1000 feet. The numbers of Peregrines have been increasing nicely over the years and we are excited to have a number of nesting pairs here in the San Juan Islands.
Another great trip seeing the amazing the species of our beautiful area.
Naturalist Kevin