Whidbey Island (pt3)

When I blog from my picture organizer, Picasa, it only allows me to blog 4 pictures at a time. I find it easiest to blog this way-first choose my pics and then do the write-ups. So now you get the Whidbey Island blog in three parts and in reverse order. I'd also thought of doing the pics as a slideshow and added the gadget as you might see in the right hand column but after that I didn't take the time to think through the next steps - another time.

Oh this gull was very entertaining and I got a lot of shots of him. I was wondering if he only had one leg so I threw a small piece of driftwood gently to a log close to him. He put his other leg down and hopped over to a neighboring log - no worries. He had been preening himself or simply scratching himself under his wing with the other foot for the longest time. Later he sat down and tucked his head under his wing, even his eye seemed to disappear later.

Driftwood is stacked up for miles along the shore. Some years ago I found a wonderful long curved piece of driftwood to which I helped myself and now use in my garden as a prop.

This stalwart flower flourishes along this rugged coast growing unconcernedly in the sand. These flowers along with the grasses help keep the sand from blowing away.

The Arbutus Tree is unique and eye-catching because of its red bark and gnarly branches. I remembered from earlier studies that this tree is unique to our West Coast. I Googled 'Arbutus Tree' and found:
"The Arbutus Tree is the only native broadleaf evergreen tree in Canada. Arbutus is restricted to a narrow band along the south coast (of BC)and generally occurs within 8 kilometres of the ocean. It is often found on exposed rocky bluffs overlooking the ocean."