We recently took a drive down the Oregon coast and I took a lot of photos of birds, sea, sky, and sand at Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. A number of birds nest at Haystack Rock, including Tufted Puffins, Murres, Gulls, and Cormorants. I didn’t realize that we had puffins on the Pacific. I had tried to see them in Nova Scotia, without success. I had seen many at a relatively close distance in Iceland, but all the photos turned out slightly blurry, unfortunately. Here we got to where we could see the Tufted Puffins with our naked eye and then I zoomed in and took photos where they landed, somewhat blind. While you can definitely tell they are puffins, they are a bit blurry – so the challenge of getting a clear puffin photo continues! The more serious photographers had tripods and that would likely help. Here is a collage of a few blurry Tufted Puffin photos.

We also saw flocks of pelicans and I was able to get some better photos of these interesting birds. We also saw them diving and catching fish at times.

The beach was wide, the sand soft and good for walking barefoot. I can see why this beach is so popular and I didn’t expect the abundance of seabirds and other shore life. The light was amazing at times, one morning a continuous interplay of cloud and sunshine. I even saw a sun halo one day.

There was, of course, a lot of sealife in the tide pools, starfish and sea anemones.

All in all, a relaxing and invigorating trip! There is nothing like walking barefoot on the sand for hours each day!