Haystack Rock on the Pacific Ocean coast at Cannon Beach Oregon is an amazing place. Tufted Puffins that breed on the rock in the summer are the featured attraction. But there are also plenty of opportunities to photograph other birds, including ducks, murres and oystercatchers. And of course lots of gulls like in the photo below. The tide pools below the rock are a great place to find Black Oystercatchers and Harlequin ducks (one of my favorite birds) when the tide is out.

As noted in some of my other posts, ducks are one of my favorite birds to photograph. So during an April Cannon Beach visit I was very happy to photograph some Harlequin Ducks, at Haystack Rock.

Harlequin Ducks might be the most attractive ducks you can find in the Pacific Northwest. These two photos of male Harlequin Ducks at Haystack Rock do a good job of showing these ducks’ unique markings. The male ducks are slate blue with white stripes and chestnut sides. Their heads have a white crescent in front of the eye, and chestnut highlights on their brows. 

None of our other Pacific Northwest ducks look like Harlequin Ducks so they are easy to identify if you are lucky enough to find them!