In retrospect, it’s obvious that I squandered the only sunny day of the week yesterday when I watched the Huskies-Ducks football game. Of course, if the Huskies had won instead of being manhandled by the Ducks, I would have very different thoughts. Today was supposed to have sunshine gradually turning to rain, which is predicted to last the rest of the week. As it turned out, though, it was foggy and drizzling when we left for Belfair around 8:30.
As I’ve noted before, though, sometimes fog can work to your benefit since you can actually get closer to birds without spooking them, as we did to this Great Blue Heron that was perched on one of the bird boxes on the pond.
Of course, the fog made it impossible to get shots of anything that was more than a few yards away. If you’re lucky, sometimes it actually seems to add to the shot, as in this shot of a seagull flying up the creek with trees in the background.
On the other hand, you have to depend upon closeups of the fall foliage
and birds like this Spotted Towhee
to provide color for your photos, that and a little Aperture and Photoshop magic to draw out what colors are there.
If you live in the Pacific Northwest you either learn to appreciate the clouds and diffused sunlight or you leave. We’re heading into several months where clouds will dominate the sky.
I don’t know what it is about blue herons, but I think I like them better than any other birds.
do you hear something on the roof? great photo. kjm
What makes that blue heron shot work is a combination of ingredients: the bird seems so self-contained, as if he were welded to that mossy perch.
He might have well been. He was in the exact same spot when we returned over an hour later.