Month: September 2008

Serenedipity

As much as I love “Birding,” it’s surprising how often unexpected events make the trip truly memorable. I did enjoy taking the shots of shorebirds that I went for, but even if I hadn’t gotten a single picture of a shorebird, I would have had a great time on my walks.

For instance, on my first stop at Bottle Beach, a Bald Eagle swooped over my head, so close that I could almost hear his wingbeats before I saw him. It didn’t result in any great pictures, but it still provided a major thrill of the day.

Eagle Flying Overhead

Later, on my way back to Bottle Beach from Tokeland, I saw this Red-Tailed Hawk sitting in a tree beside the road and managed to get the best shot I’ve ever gotten of one, perhaps the only shot not taken of one flying far above me.

Red-Tail Hawk

And the day ended with another surprise when I encountered this young buck, with several does just as I was finishing my walk at Bottle Beach.

Buck with Does

It’s surprising what Nature reveals to us once we open ourselves up to it.

Go With the Tide

One thing you learn as a generalist, rather than a specialist is that’s there’s always something new to learn. I now know enough to consult the tide charts before planning a birding trip to the coast. Originally I was told that you should be there two hours before high tide so that the shorebirds will gradually be pushed toward the shore and towards you and your camera.

I did exactly that when I headed out to Bottle Beach yesterday. When I got there, there was virtually no shore, and virtually no birds. What there was was a single photographer and a small flock of Lesser Sandpipers.

Flock Of Lesser Sandpipers

He told me he’d been there three and half hours before high tide and it was nearly perfect. So, the new rule of thumb is that if it’s a really high tide, like yesterdays’ 9, you need to be there at least three hours before high tide. Of course, if it’s a normal high tide you’ll have to wait a couple of hours for any birds. Hope I can remember that.

As long as I was there, I decided to walk a couple miles down the beach, probably because I couldn’t believe all of the birds would have left that quickly. I was rewarded with total of four shorebirds, three Black-Bellied Plowers, like this one

Another Unidentified Shorebird

and a single Whimbrel.

Whimbrel

Well, I certainly didn’t waste a day driving to settle for three birds. So I drove down the beach to another spot that was good the last time I was at the beach. Nothing, but the photographer I’d talked to at Bottle Beach told me that there were a lot birds at Tokeland.

He wasn’t lying. The high tide that had driven all the birds from Bottle Beach had forced the resident flock of Marbled Godwits to huddle together near the shore.

They were so close that I had to take my 1.4 lens extender off my birding lens. The hardest thing was isolating a subject without cutting off wings, legs and beaks.

Marbled Godwit Flock

These four were sitting on top of a pier, and I was attracted by the one on the right.

Four Godwits on Pier

I found it nearly impossible to get a shot of just one flying, but this one had just landed.

Godwit

A very high tide might be a photographic disaster at one beach but a real blessing at another. Sounds familiar, somehow.

Belfair Redux

I don’t often get the chance to walk the same route I’ve walked earlier in the day to see if I’d see the same birds at a different time. I did get that chance Friday at Belfair, returning after lunch to walk the same route that I’d walked at 7:30 earlier in the day.

I was rather surprised at what I saw, or didn’t see, though perhaps I shouldn’t have been. All the song birds had disappeared, without a single peep, replaced by a flock of crows who were eating the berries in the trees, even driving out this raptor who dared to be sitting in one of the trees they coveted.

Crow Dive Bombing Raptor

It might appear here that the hawk was winning, but my camera couldn’t capture the other five crows who harried the poor guy all the way across the creek.

The raucous fight caused the only other bird I saw to fly to a quieter spot.

Great Blue Heron Flying

Really, though, the afternoon walk was dominated by dragonflies, not birds. I got so many chances to take pictures of dragonflies that I finally got another shot of one mid-flight,

Dragonfly

though I had to settle for a shot of this Meadowhawk holding onto a leaf.

Meadowhawk

I can only wonder if the songbirds would have been there if the crows, and the raptor, hadn’t occupied the same territory or if they limit their foraging to the early morning hours.

Belfair Again

Since I’d volunteered to work from 9-11 Friday at Theler Gardens, I started walking at 7:45, earlier than usual. It was cooler and damper than I’m used to, but the combination of sunshine and moisture highlighted the brilliant spider webs

Spider Web

lining the trail, a sure sign around here that Fall is near, despite the day’s 80º.

With the sun low in the horizon, it was hard to tell if this was another Savannah Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

or a more common sparrow basking in the sun’s golden warmth.

There was no mistaking the brilliant reds on this little guy which I first mistook for a Purple Finch, but decided after considerable browsing was probably an immature male House Finch, though once again I might easily be wrong.

Immature House Finch

Although there still weren’t many birds and no sign of Fall’s usual southern migration, there were more song birds than I’ve seen in a couple of weeks of walking.