Summer Doldrums

It wasn’t a particularly good week for birding or photography around here. With clouds and rain in the forecast, it didn’t seem worthwhile to drive to the mountains or the coast, so I stuck around home and went birding. Friday’s walk at Belfair ended without a single bird shot, and Wednesday’s ten mile hike at Nisqually was only slightly better.

Perhaps that is to be expected, though, because looking back at last year’s blog entries I see that there was also a general lack of birds at this time. Birding-wise, I guess you’d have to call this the summer doldrums.

In other words, things are exactly as they should be here in the Pacific Northwest and there’s no reason to do anything but enjoy the way they are.

I did enjoy watching these Bush Tits feeding on insects in the long grass but wasn’t quite up to the challenge of getting a clear shot of these flighty guys other than this one.

Bush Tits Upside Down on Grass

I did manage to get this Yellow Warbler to pose for a shot

Female Yellow Warbler

and to capture a shot of what seems to be an immature Thayer’s Gull flying by for a look,

Immature Thayer's Gull

but was too slow to capture what would have certainly been the best shot of the day, the raptor who flew right at me at eye level three times as I walked the McCallister side of the Nisqually refuge. Unfortunately, it flew at me so fast that I couldn’t even identify it, much less get a shot.

While looking back at last year’s blog entries, I was reminded that the dahlias should be a their best about now, so I’ll head down there Tuesday or so when everyone else heads back to work. At least flowers tend to be dependable when it comes to photography this time of year. And all our rain has made them more beautiful than ever.

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