Month: July 2009

Pt Defiance Garden

It was cool and cloudy this morning, but turned sunny and pleasantly warm around 1:00 PM, so I decided to go down to the Pt Defiance Garden to see what had changed since I was last there two weeks ago. Remarkably, very little had changed.

The roses were still going strong, looking in remarkably good shape considering the recent rain. New buds seemed to indicate this beauty is not ready to fade yet:

Pink Rose

Some of the earlier varieties of dahlias continue to flourish,

Purple and Yelllow Dahlia

and some of the flashier, late-season varieties are blooming now, too, like pink and yellow variety,

Pink Dahlia

or this even larger yellow dahlia.

Yellow Dahlia

It’s a great place to be, which is probably why there were so many people there taking in the sunshine and flowers.

He-Who-Talks-To-Small-Birds, Too

Things have been a little hectic around here since returning from our trip, a few days have even been dark and dreary for much of the day, but luckily I have my hummingbirds to keep me company.

When it’s sunny, I’ll sit on the front swing for a half hour or so and several hummingbirds will visit. I still haven’t managed to capture a shot of two hummingbirds dive bombing each other, but it must just be a matter of time until I do so.

The hardest part of taking hummingbird photographs is deciding which to delete, since I really don’t want a hard drive full of hummingbird shots. But there are so many good shots that it ends up being difficult to decide which ones to delete.

I kept this one because I’ve never gotten a shot so clear that I could actually see the small feathers pilling up on the bird’s breast,

Hummingbird

this one, because of the angle of the tail, and the suggestion of settling comfortably into an easy chair,

Hummingbird

and this one because it looks a lot like the one from last year, the one that gave me the name “He-Who-Talks-To-Small-Birds.”

Hummingbird Sitting on Branch

I find the photographs almost as fascinating as the hummingbirds themselves.

Nearly Home Again

I found out a year ago that two days wasn’t long enough to do this loop justice, but I found out this time that three days isn’t long enough to do it justice, either. Of course, I was in a bit of a rush knowing that my new iPhone 3Gs was waiting to be picked up before 7:00 PM. So after I spent as much time as I wanted in Toppenish, I headed across the mountains for home.

I should have taken Chinook Pass, but White Pass is much faster and has less traffic, so I took that route home. It is still an absolutely breathtaking drive, one that deserves much larger photos than these to convey the sense of height and depth of the pass.

Here’ a look back at Yakima just as I neared the pass:

Looking Back at Yakima

Unfortunately, the haze from the fire that had burned over hundreds of acres for three days makes it difficult to appreciate the layer after layer of mountains that make up the Cascades.

And while this photo offers a glimpse of Clear Creek Falls, it cannot capture the remarkable height of the waterfall:

Clear Creek Falls

Of course, the constant highlight of the drive is the ever-present Mt. Rainier, seen here from the south-east.

Mount Rainer from the South East

This may not be heaven, but it’s as close as I expect to get in this lifetime.

Toppenish Wildlife Refuge

I’ve been looking forward to returning to Toppenish Wildlife Refuge since I started planning this trip. I even went to bed early, really early, so I could be at the refuge before 8:00 am.

I wasn’t disappointed. Upon entry I found the main pond full of American White Pelicans feeding,

Pelicans Feeding

though they bolted when a number of ducks scattered as I approached. Although I felt bad that I’d interrupted their feeding, it was thrilling to watch them fill the sky:

Pelicans In Flight

As I walked around the pond, I flushed several Black-Necked Stilts that seemed to circle around me “incessantly repeating ‘pleek,’” just as Sibley notes. It reminded me a lot of the Killdeer I’d seen just before that did exactly he same thing in order to draw me away from its nest.

Black-necked Stilt in Flight

It took me a considerably longer time to get this shot of a Stilt wading on the edges of the pond, but this is one of the few times I prefer a stepping shot to a flying shot.

Stilt Walking

I actually managed to get several more shots that I liked, but I thought I’d leave you with this shot of a Marsh Hawk that buzzed me several times,

Marsh Hawk Overhead

though the closest shots were taken directly into the sun and were considerably underexposed. I figured she was angling to get onto the web page or she wouldn’t have buzzed me so low twice.

I certainly wish I lived closer to this refuge. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to put up with the summer heat or the winter cold.