The Majesty of the Emperor

If I had checked Washington Birds the night before I left, I would have known exactly where to find the emperor geese. I drove within 10 km of Dungeness Wildlife Area, on my way to the pelagic in Westport. A guy on the ferry even mentioned it as if he’d heard they’d been seen there, but that had been a long time ago, he thought. In any case, I did check Washington birds, long after passing the geese, having driven all the way to Westport, and it appeared they had been seen. I picked up Dom at the Seattle airport. We were to embark on a journey of wild America from Seattle to Sarnia, and survive to tell the tales. The emperors were only 1.5 hours plus a ferry in the opposite direction. Shall we twitch? A very dumb question. After getting lost at night, we finally found the spot. We celebrated the first night out the trip with a candle-lit bean dinner in the back of my car (not with real candles – that would be so dangerous!!) Escorted by a Eurasian Wigeon, there they are, in all their MAJESTY!

After battling Red-breasted Sapsucker and Dipper in the mountains, Dom falling into a snow-hole, and being pulled over by the police (luckily he missed my expired license sticker), we went for some owling north of Cle Elum.