Fed Scientists Capture Incredible Wildlife, Landmark Images on N. Oregon Coast

Published 08/23/2019 at 6:43 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Cannon Beach, Oregon) – Back in July, one Oregon coast expert joined with a group of others on a fantastic voyage and came back with some even more fantastic images – including video. (Photos and video courtesy Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium).

Tiffany Boothe, a marine specialist at Seaside Aquarium and its media expert (and arguably media darling), joined forces with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on a special boat trip. She was invited by agency scientists to ride along on its tufted puffin count.

“We left out of Garibaldi and surveyed Three Arches and then headed up north to survey the west side of Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach,” Boothe said.

The close encounters with wildlife were amazing, but they also yielded stellar glimpses of landmarks we don’t normally get to see. There are an increasingly wide array of closeup shots of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, sitting offshore from Seaside and Cannon Beach, but Boothe managed to catch some incredible snaps there. One thing you don’t get to see much of, however, are the Three Arch Rocks offshore from Oceanside.

It was here Boothe caught sight of gray whales cavorting. You get to not only see a whale’s tail flopping around the water’s surface, but all the crags and crannies of one of those giant seastacks become clear.

Most striking are the closeups of giant arches from two rocks. All three have arches, in case you didn’t know.

They are all federally protected wildlife preserves, acting as homes for birds and sea lions. If you’ve got binoculars or a zoom lens of any kind, Oceanside is a great spot to look at these in their natural habitat. - Hotels in Oceanside - Where to eat - Oceanside Maps and Virtual Tours

“Gray and humpback whales are Oregon’s most common visitors,” Boothe said. “Both species migrate up to the Arctic in the spring to refuel on fatty rich krill and then return to the warmer protected waters around Mexico and Hawaii in the fall.”

Farther north on the Oregon coast, Boothe snagged incredible closeups of the massive lighthouse known as Terrible Tilly.

There, she encountered a group of steller sea lions as interested in the boat riders as they were of them (top photo).

Boothe also caught plenty of excellent shots of the adorable tufted puffin itself: a bird that only lives in a few spots along the Oregon coast, and all but Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock are far from human eyes. Hotels in Cannon Beach - Where to eat - Cannon Beach Maps and Virtual Tours

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