After breakfast we packed up and headed north to Depoe Bay to the Whale Watching Center. From the overlook building, whales are often spotted. Some are migrating, and a few others are year-round residents. Volunteers are on hand to provide tips and information on whales. One had been spotted before the center opened at 10:00 a.m. We didn't see any, but enjoyed looking out for them. We did see a couple of black oystercatchers, shore birds with impressively bright orange feet.
Next we headed south to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Chris had luckily gotten Groupon tickets, so we skipped the line and walked right in. The weather was clear, but it had been raining on and off, so we decided to check out the outdoor exhibits first. We walked the Nature Trail and saw a great expanse of wetlands and mudflats. Lots of the plants were conveniently labeled.
We walked into the Sea Bird Aviary. Unlike other aviaries I've visited, this one is limited to shore birds, including tufted puffins, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, common murres and black oystercatchers. It's breeding season, so all the birds were exhibiting their breeding plumage. The tufted puffins were especially striking in appearance and fascinating to watch as they dove and flew gracefully beneath the water or shook themselves comically to clean their feathers.
We were lucky enough to be in the aviary at feeding time, so we learned a lot about the birds from the friendly keeper who was tossing out fish and setting out other food. To limit the population, the keepers regularly substitute dummy eggs for the parents to brood. This year they have a request from another institution for two tufted puffins, so they'll allow some eggs to hatch.
We saw lots else, including a giant Pacific octopus.
We packed lunch and went out to a picnic pavilion to eat, then returned to see more.
We enjoyed watching feedings of sea otters, seals and sea lions. We walked through an underwater viewing tank with lots of bat rays and sharks and school fish. We visited the swampland exhibit and saw caymen and alligators and a giant anaconda. Annie enjoyed popping up in the middle of the piranha tank.
The trip home was much less stressful than Friday's trip out of town. We drove across through Corvallis to I-5 and took that north almost to Chris's house.
Terri and Ed both called to wish me a happy Mother's Day.
Ken took this photo of a double decker trailer to send to Jeff. He's been interested in driving a class A or class C rv, but would want to tow both a car and his boat.
We played Can't Stop. Annie won two in a row. We threatened to give her a handicap next time.
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