I went over to Bainbridge Island on June 6 looking for Bald Eagles.  A friend had reported that they were all over the beach.  I arrived at 6 am for the morning low tide.  Unfortunately, the low tide was not low enough (+2 feet), so the eagles had nothing to feed on.  However, I was treated to many other sights, so the day was far from wasted.

There was one juvenile eagle present just about all morning, but he barely moved off of his perch.  

Juvenile Bald Eagle However, I was treated to many Belted Kingfisher sightings, including two successful fishing ventures.  

Male Belted Kingfisher The most entertaining part of the morning was the Purple Martins.  Many of the dock owners have gourds for the Martins to nest in, but the one pier without gourds had a Martin family nesting in a piling.  I got permission from the dock owner, and I spent the next hour watching the Martins.

This is Mama:

Female Purple Martin This is Papa:

Male Purple Martin in flight And this is the chick with papa:

Male Purple Martin with chick And the whole family:

Purple Martin family

I was thoroughly entertained for the hour, but I moved on from there to see what other species I could find. I headed up to Indianola and found a small restored area with lots of wildlife:

Even before I got out of my car I was treated to a White-crowned Sparrow family:

White Crowned Sparrow with chick I watched them for quite some time. There were two chicks, and I had just one opportunity to get them both in the same plane of focus:

White-crowned sparrow chicks While watching the chicks, I noticed something in a far away tree.  It was at least 150 yards away, so I took a picture to ID it.  While snapping the picture, what turned out to be a crow was regurgitating up a pellet.  I did not even know they did that. It is a lousy photo, but that is all I got:

Crow regurgitating a pellet Also in the area was a lot of Poison Hemlock.  It got me wondering whether the bees who feed upon it get poisoned. It turns out the answer is no.  The bees are just fine.

Honey bee on Poison Hemlock flower Just before I left the nature preserve, I heard the unmistakable chirping of a Douglass Squirrel, so I felt obliged to take his picture.

Douglass Squirrel I drove from there up to Point-no-Point.  I have always wanted to visit the area.  I know that it is a very famous migratory bird area. I had no expectation for what I would find, seeing as this is not a time of migration. It turns out that there was a flock of Steller's Jays there and they were constantly in motion.  I took probably 100 photos of them flying over my head, of which maybe 5 came out.  Hazy sky and dark birds do not make the best combination:

Steller's Jay I finally got one perched just before I left.  The end to a fruitful day:

Steller's Jay