July 2018 - Point Roberts Collection

This post contains photos and videos taken at Lighthouse Marine Park in Point Roberts in the month of July. This is the quiet season for this location. However, I did pick up one new species for the year.

July 7, 2018

This video shows the rocky shoreline and sharp drop off, quite different from the sandy flat beaches in the Metro Vancouver area.

One of the year round residents is the Pelagic Cormorant. They can be identified by their narrow dark bill and by a white patch at the rump end of the wings. However, this is not visible year round.


Pelagic Cormorant - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA



I have seen Belted Kingfishers here on a few occasions, but today I was lucky to see both a male and female. Contrary to most bird species, the female is the more colourful of the two, with a ruddy orange band around the breast. The male just has a single blue band.


Belted Kingfisher (Male) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA


Belted Kingfisher (Female) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

She seems a little agitated about something.



Here's a short movie of her:

July 22, 2018

On this day I was lucky to see a few Rhinoceros Auklets, small seabirds that are seen occasionally at this location. I only had the Nikon camera with me and it's not suited for getting sharp images of moving subjects. This photo was the best of the few I took.

Rhinoceros Auklet - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA - 2018 Bird #187.

Here's a slightly better photo taken in July 2017 at the same location.


Rhinoceros Auklet - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA - July 2017

The last bird of the month for Point Roberts was sharper, an immature California Gull, probably a year away from full adult plumage.


California Gull (Imm) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA