Yes, there were more pelicans...lots and lots of pelicans....

What can I say?  I just don't get tired of seeing pelicans, and I keep seeing them everywhere I go!  So guess what you get to see here? 

Last week I took the Hounds to one of our favorite spots, the local marina, which has many lovely spots to access the river away from the boats.

It's a pretty reliable spot for seeing pelicans.

Though we also see other birds such as this Double-crested Cormorant:

 We visited the marina twice this past week, and one morning it was warm enough for a dip in the river (at least for dogs).

As they were wading, a pelican flew past. 

Actually, on one day last week I did not see any pelicans.  Shocking!  But I did see Truman's twin.  We were at Leslie Groves Park when we met a woman walking a long-haired black-and-tan wiener dog named Cooper.

Pippin, who usually barks at other dogs, ran right up to Cooper.

Truman kept his distance, possibly disturbed by the resemblance.  A fun encounter indeed.

I also did some painting last week, though not the kind I usually do.  I had some light blue paint left over from the bedroom project, and decided that it might just cover two of the living room walls.  The living room walls are gray, a color which annoyed me.   So I fixed that:

It was quite tricky getting around that TV stand, which was too heavy to move.  But I managed, and with the help of lots of plastic sheeting, didn't get a single drop of paint on anything it wasn't supposed to be on.

The color is closest to the actual color in the pic above -- the one below isn't showing blue enough, but it does show the finished walls.  It is a big improvement.

Okay, back to the birds.  One morning we visited W.E. Johnson Park briefly, where we had a nice Osprey fly-over:

Our best adventure of the week happened yesterday.  I took the Hounds back to Leslie Groves Park for a short walk, and when I got back to the car, it was only 7:30am.  We like to go out early to avoid the heat of the day, you see.  This was earlier than usual, though, and I didn't feel like going home at 7:30 in the morning, and I also had not seen any pelicans yet, so on a whim, I decided to drive to Chiawana Park in Pasco.

And after a short walk, guess what we found there?

Sleepy pelicans!

Some of them were preening -- this pair was often synchronized:

This bird was trying to preen a hard-to-reach spot:

The geese were preening as well, but I had eyes only for pelicans....

That satisfied my pelican needs for the day.  It was still early, though, so I opted to continue on down the road a ways to Sacajawea Park, which the Hounds had never been to. 

We found this robin on a nest:

 And the Western Wood-Pewee I'd seen on my previous visit was in the exact same tree:

The Hounds seemed to enjoy the place.

Finally, since the McNary National Wildlife Refuge was just a hop, skip, and a highway overpass away,  I popped over there for a quick look.  The best sighting was of coot chicks -- the lighting was bad, though, and they were far away, so I couldn't get the best photos.  Still exciting to see!

And naturally, there were pelicans....

Plus my other favorite bird in these parts, the Great Egret:

Then I headed home (the Hounds were giving me Looks).   We got back at 10:00am after visiting three parks and one refuge.  A fine morning all round.

This post will be the last one until the end of the summer -- I am going on vacation, and will not be updating again until September 2nd.  May we all have fabulous summer adventures!