And Songbirds, Too

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You definitely know it’s Spring around here when you can not only hear, but see, the songbirds moving through the area. Most are part of the spring migration and won’t be seen until they pass through again in the Fall. A few actually stay, but once mating season is over and babies have been hatched, it’s nearly impossible to spot them.

Right now there seems to be a lot of Orange-Crowned Warblers.

Orange-Crowned Warbler

a few very bright Western Tanagers,

Western Tanager

some very noisy Marsh Wrens,

Marsh Wren

and the first of the Cedar Waxwings.

Cedar Waxwing

Of course, just because you can see them doesn’t mean you can actually get a good picture of them. They are the hardest of the birds to photograph since they depend on their speed and ability to stay hidden to survive.

Swallows Return to Theler

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I walk Theler Wetlands all year-long, but Spring is definitely one of my favorite times. In particular, I look forward to the return of the swallows.

The Tree Swallows usually return first, as they did this year. In previous years, my favorite swallow shots have been those of Tree Swallows sitting on the railing of the Southern Swamp Trail where they seem eager to pose for anyone who passes by. This year, though, there seems to be a lot fewer of them sitting on the railing, though I’m not sure why. They have, however, claimed most of the birdhouses north of the pond, refusing to give up possession even to walkers and birders.

male Tree Swallow

While it’s still possible to get an occasional shot of a Tree Swallow sitting on the boardwalk railing,

male Tree Swallow

you’re more apt to find Violet-Green Swallows, which I showed on an earlier post, or, even more likely, Barn Swallows

Barn Swallows

which nest under the boardwalk.

Today I finally saw my first Cliff Swallow

Cliff Swallow

of the year, hanging out with some other swallows that looked like a cross between a Barn Swallow and a Cliff Swallow. My Stokes Bird Guide suggested that hybrids between species is not uncommon.

This is the only place I’ve ever been where you can easily find four different varieties of swallows, and, apparently if you’re more observant than I am, a fifth variety I haven’t managed to photograph yet.

Less Rain, More Pictures

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Since I haven’t been complaining about the weather around here lately, you might have figured out that we’ve been having better weather. I honestly like Pacific Northwest weather or I wouldn’t have moved back here after my time in the service. But when we have winters as wet as we have had in the last two years, I begin to question just how much rain I can tolerate. Here’s a graph illustrating the kind of weather we’ve had from Jan 17 to May 10.

pie chart of local weather since January 17

I even suspect that at least half of those sunny times must have occurred during our long winter nights.

The weather lately has been more typical Spring weather, showers with intervals of sunshine. That’s been good enough for me to get out and take photographs. I took this picture of a Violet-Green Swallow

Violet-Green Swallow

at Theler right after we got caught in some heavy showers, but the light for this shot was nearly perfect.

Sometimes when the clouds clear out overhead but I can see rain clouds to the southwest, I head out to Waughop Lake in Steilacoom because it’s close enough that I can probably get there before the weather shifts, and if it does rain I haven’t wasted much gas.

Since they made changes as Nisqually, Waughop is one of the few places where I’ve seen the striking Ring-Necked Duck

male Ring-Necked Duck

with its striking bill (I’ve always thought it should have been named the Ring-Billed Duck).

It’s also one of the few places I can count on seeing the smallest of our local grebes, the Pied-Billed Grebe.

Pied Grebe

I never get bored watching these little guys slowly sink out of sight when they’re tired of you staring at them.

Most of all, though, I go to photograph the wood ducks who are much more visible at this time of year than any other time of the year. I suspect it might have something with wanting to show off their new finery to the opposite sex:

pair of Wood Ducks

Best of all, you often find brightly colored males close to shore under the cover of branches hanging over the water,

male Wood Duck

which seems like the proper setting for a Wood Duck, after all.

Pigeon Guillemots Everywhere

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On May 13th I was walking out on the Port Orchard pier when I met John walking back to his car. When we talked, he told me he was trying to get a picture of a Pigeon Guillemot. I was a little surprised that he hadn’t seen one there, because I’d seen several relatively close to the docks on earlier visits.

As it turned out, I got one of my best shots ever at the end of the dock because the afternoon sun provided ideal lighting.

Pigeon Guillemot

The hardest thing about shooting Pigeon Guillemot’s, like most other black and white birds, is not blowing out the whites as you attempt to adjust for the overall black color of the body. Shooting in RAW gives you a chance of saving some detail in the white, as it did here.

Unlike most Pigeon Guillemots which usually dive as soon as you start looking their way, this one hung around posing for quite a while.

Pigeon Guillemot

Two days later I was visiting the boathouse at Pt Defiance, and a Pigeon Guillemot appeared a few feet from the deck I was standing on. It was so close that at first I could not get it in focus. It wasn’t until he started swimming away that I managed to get some better shots.

Pigeon Guillemot

That was the first time in the seven years I’ve been going to the boathouse that I’ve seen a Pigeon Guillemot anywhere near the docks.

Strangely, exactly the same thing happened on my latest trip to Westport. As I was photographing loons, a Pigeon Guillemot suddenly emerged right off the end of the dock, mere feet away.

Pigeon Guillemot

Of course, I’ve gotten some of my best shots of Pigeon Guillemots at Westport in previous years, so it wasn’t surprising to see one there, but it seemed strange to suddenly have so many show up so close in such a short time.