A Spring Symphony

Going out birding suggests you’re going out to SEE birds, but this time of year, sometimes you go out to HEAR birds, even when you can’t see them. That has certainly been the case lately. On a Thursday walk, Cornell University’s Merlin app identified nine different birds in one place in less than two minutes, a virtual symphony, and I couldn’t see a single one of them. That really didn’t matter, though, because their songs lifted my spirits.

Luckily, a few birds seem to go out of their way to make themselves visible when they are calling, like this Red-winged Blackbird

A red-winged blackbird perched on a wooden surface, with its head turned slightly as it calls out.

and this Marsh Wren.

A close-up of a small bird perched among dry reeds, with its beak open as if singing.

At least knowing that a bird is nearby gives you a chance to look for them in likely places, and sometimes in unlikely places like where I found that Eurasian Collared-Dove after hearing it much earlier.

A Eurasian-Collared Dove standing on wet, muddy ground among sparse grass and plants.

I’ll have to admit I’m occasionally frustrated when I can’t see a bird I can clearly hear and identify, but just knowing we are here together is still reassuring.

Time to Get Outside and Enjoy Nature at Its Finest

I’m not sure if it’s still Winter here in the Pacific Northwest, or whether Spring has finally sprung. It’s still raining enough that it is definitely hard to plan a day out birding ahead of time. I’ve only managed to get out once since our trip to Port Townsend, and it wasn’t a great birding day.

Spotting this beautiful male Green-Winged Teal was definitely the birding highlight of the day.

A male teal duck swimming gracefully on a calm water surface, showcasing its distinctive green and brown head along with gray body feathers.

Luckily, it has warmed up enough that the currants were nearly in full bloom,

Close-up of vibrant pink flowers with green leaves on a branch, set against a soft blurred background.

Oregon grapes were flowering,

Close-up of a cluster of yellow flowers surrounded by dark green and reddish leaves.

and Skunk Cabbage was found throughout the wetlands.

A cluster of yellow skunk cabbage flowers emerging from lush green ground cover, surrounded by fallen branches.

It’s hard to be disappointed even by a lack of birds when there is so much natural beauty finally reappearing.

Ft Worden provided a perfect ending to our outing

Being a creature of habit, I start my trip to Port Townsend with a birding stop at Ft. Flagler, fish and chips at Sea J’s Cafe, a tour of the art galleries, particularly the two Co-ops, and a final birding stop at Ft. Worden where we often see birds that we haven’t seen at Ft. Flagler.

On this trip, I managed to get some good shots of what turned out to be not one but two different Belted Kingfishers. We’ve seen Kingfishers here many times in the past, but they like to laugh and fly away before your camera can focus on them. On this trip, though, this one landed right under me and sat there as I leaned over the railing in several different places trying to get the perfect angle.

A close-up of a kingfisher perched on a wooden surface, showcasing its distinctive blue-gray feathers and orange-brown underparts.

After I’d taken a dozen or so shots, though, I was distracted by a river otter diving right below the Kingfisher.

A river otter swimming in calm blue waters, with ripples surrounding its body.

The Kingfisher flew away by the time I grew frustrated with trying to capture a shot of the otter’s head. As we headed back to the car a Kingfisher flew back overhead and landed a few feet away from where the earlier Kingfisher had been. I assumed it was the same Kingfisher.

A close-up of a kingfisher perched on a weathered wooden post with a rusty metal cap.

I didn’t realize otherwise until I got home and uploaded my shots to my computer that I realized this was a male Belted Kingfisher. The reason they had completely ignored me was that it must be mating season

Capturing the Perfect Harlequin Duck Photo at Fort Flagler

I was easy to spot Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings at Fort Flagler, but I might not have noticed the Turnstones if Leslie hadn’t spotted them first with her binoculars. I started looking for them, and a few minutes later I spotted this one foraging right next to a Sanderling.

Two shorebirds foraging along a rocky beach near the shoreline, with water in the background.

This one stood out more than the others I spotted because the water provided a background, but several of the shots I took were blurry because my Canon EOS R5 focused on the rocks instead of the bird.

I managed to focus on another one as it ran across the wet sand before reaching the rocky stretch of beach where it finds food.

A small bird foraging on a wet rocky shore, with a mix of brown and white plumage.

I enjoyed seeing all these different varieties of seabirds, but I began to worry that we hadn’t seen a single Harlequin duck until we reached the very end of the spit.

I’ve noted before that I don’t chase rare sightings, that I prefer to visit refuges or special places where you can see all kinds of wildlife, but a skeptic could argue that I do chase Harlequin ducks, and the only place I can count on seeing them is Fort Flagler. I’ve been going there for years, trying to capture the perfect Harlequin shot.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to go back again next year because these shots aren’t even as good as some I have taken in past years, because they were as long ways off shore. These shots have all been heavily cropped, even though I shot them with a 200mm-800mm zoom lens.

Two harlequin ducks swimming in blue water, with one male displaying bright orange and black plumage and one female with a more subdued brown coloration.

Even worse, I continue to struggle to avoid blown-out highlights and am forced to tone down the whites and highlights to show some of the detail in the white feathers.

Two ducks swimming in water, one with distinct black and white markings and the other a darker brown with a light patch on its head.

These might be considered better than some shots I’ve taken in the past. If so, it is probably because my equipment has gotten better and better (and more and more expensive) over time. Not to mention that photographic software allows more precise adjustments than when I started birding.