November 26 - Brief Point Roberts Outing

It was another Sunday visit to the Point for cheap gas and a brief check of activity at Lighthouse Marine Park.

The first sightings were the familiar Red-breasted Mergansers. Normally I only see females here, but today there was a male quite close to shore.


Red-breasted Merganser - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

This bird is easily distinguished from the similar Common Merganser by these differences:

• the reddish breast patch with the white ring above it
• the crested head, not too visible here
• the overall thin appearance, this species only weighs about 2/3 of what a Common Merganser does
• The long thin bill with a slight upturn as seen below.

Red-breasted Merganser - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

You can tell there's not much going on when I start taking photos of Glaucous-winged Gulls, our most common species on the west coast.

I decided to take a photo with each of my cameras as this gull posed for me nearby.

Here's how the Nikon P900C super zoom saw it:


Glaucous-winged Gull - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA (Nikon)

My Canon T4i saw it differently and more closely resembled what I saw with my eyes.


Glaucous-winged Gull - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA (Canon)

To be fair, I'm using the bord-watching setting with the Nikon, and it may be affecting the colour balance.

As I was leaving I spotted a sea lion swimming by quite close to shore. This is where the Nikon shines as i was able to get an in-focus shot from quite a distance.


Steller's Sea Lion - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

With not much else to see, I returned to Canada and headed home.