When the sun finally came out last Thursday I thought of trying to get to Theler Wetlands and Port Orchard, but since we had a dinner date for 5:00 near there I thought I’d go to Pt Defiance first and Port Orchard later. Luckily, I got some great shots at Pt Defiance because things didn’t turn out nearly as well at Port Orchard.
I got there around 1:30 and did manage to get the best shot I have ever gotten of a male White-Winged Scoter, a bird I’ve never seen in the marina before.
At first I thought I might get some other great shots because there were more birds than usual and because the light was great. I did manage to get a couple of other shots I liked like this one of a male Barrow’s Goldeneye
and this one of a Horned Grebe swallowing a fish that seemed much too large for it to eat
before the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse. By the time I got to the end of the dock, a maximum of fifteen minutes, the sun had disappeared and even on the highest ISO settings I could get nothing but shadows.
Did I mention 38° can seem awfully cold on the Puget Sound if there’s no sunshine? I ended up driving home before our dinner date because I couldn’t imagine having to spend two hours sitting in the car waiting.