Month: November 2005

When Birding Isn’t

Usually when people see me out walking around with my camera, and it’s pretty difficult to miss a Canon camera with a 400mm lens, I tell them I’m “birding.� Heck, I even tell myself that, often times heading out with the intent to get a picture of a particular bird.

I’m always out to get a picture of a Kingfisher, as I did on this day,

and I much enjoyed watching this pair of Grebe lovers circling each other while bathed in sundown’s beautiful colors:

But the real highlight of my day, and probably not just the day, was getting this picture of four otters that just happened by while I was standing on the dock talking to two fishermen. They swam right under the pier we were standing on, so close that I couldn’t get my 400mm lens to focus on them. Only after they moved off shore a little ways and looked back was I able to get this picture.

When I got home I didn’t mention I’d gotten a better picture of a Kingfisher, or a beautiful shot of two Grebes, all I could talk about was the four otters I had seen.

Perhaps I’m not birding at all, but simply learning to pay closer attention to the magnificent world I share with others.

The King and I

Nature inevitably seems to teach us humility and patience.

One day last week I set out to take pictures of Bufflehead ducks, which turned out to be Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks, and Widgeons. While I did manage to get some decent pictures of those, I found myself constantly harassed by that trickster the Kingfisher wherever I went.

Rather than overloading your internet service, I decided to make a quick collage of several, but not all, of my Kingfisher sightings on that day. Everywhere I went, there was my Kingfisher, though it turns out there are at least two Kingfishers at Pt Defiance, unless this trickster has learned how to project an image of himself, not entirely impossible considering the frustration he has caused me in my attempts to get a decent shot.

I actually ended up getting the best shots of him at a pond in Pt. Defiance where I’ve never seen one before. Apparently upset I had shifted my photographic focus to the beautiful Widgeons, this Kingfisher loudly announced himself by whizzing past my head and alighting in a nearby tree for a few seconds before flashing off to a more distant tree, obviously trying to sucker me into chasing him rather than take pictures of the ducks. After a day of aggravation, I was having none of it and stayed put.

Though this is a closeup rather than the complete print, I’m sure this is the best picture of a Kingfisher I’ve gotten so far:

Sometimes you just have to wait for mountain to come to you.

Making Every Hour Count

Last Thursday Skye and I braved the Pacific Northwest rain and managed to get in a short walk before heading back to the warm, dry comfort of my den. I decided it would be a good day to spend trying to archive my photos and clean up my overburdened second hard drive.

At four in the afternoon, though, there was a sudden clearing, and I decided I needed a longer walk, so I headed down to Pt Defiance’s beach. The beach was virtually abandoned because of the rain, but I spent an eventful hour there. It began by spotting these Bald Eagles on a tree above the cliff.

I started to climb the cliff to try to get a better shot of it but thought better of it when I discovered the steep trail was covered in wet leaves .

Luckily I didn’t, because I would have missed this shot of what appears to be a Clark’s Grebe:

my chance to play hide-and-seek with this Kingfisher for the next half hour as he figured out how to stay exactly half the distance of a the boathouse from me and my camera, no matter where I went:

and, finally, this close up of a Giant Blue Heron. I was so close to him that I had to back up in order to get him all in the frame, and he was so intent on the fish within the tank that he totally ignored me the entire time I was there:

Heck, and I didn’t even show you the picture of the harbor seal or the cormorant that came up during the hour and a half I was at the beach.

I’ve walked the shores of Puget Sound for many years without ever seeing as much as I’ve seen in the last three months. It seems the more you open yourself to nature’s wonders the more you see.