A day on the water

Today, we headed up to Newport, to fish for lingcod between the jetties at the mouth of Yaquina Bay.  Before we even started fishing, we encountered the Army Corps of Engineers dredge named the Yaquina. Now that the NOAA Pacific fleet is based in Newport, the dredge Yaquina will probably be working to clear out the Yaquina Bay channel even more often than before.

We had the great fortune of seeing an interesting selection of seabirds on our way to the jetties, including a couple of species of grebes, loons, a pair of harlequin ducks, and lots of pigeon guillemots.  Although the guillemots spend the winter at sea, they come ashore here to breed and raise their young.  We see them quite often from spring through fall. They often fly close to the water, which is understandable from an aerodynamic perspective.  However, they don't always pay attention to what they are doing. While we were fishing, a pair of guillemots flew low over our boat and one actually flew into Bori.  It hit his shoulder, dragging its wing across his face.  The bird (about 13 inches long) bounced off, and continued on, unhurt.  What was it thinking?  This photo is a pair of guilletmots on the jetty, but not necessarily the one that hit Bori.

A bit later, I found a nice black oystercatcher on the jetty.  Always a treat.

No fish were harmed by our expedition.  But the boat that landed at the dock just behind us had caught 4 halibut.  I couldn't resist taking a photo.  These were the little ones.  Their biggest was 46 inches long.