Month: May 2012

Pigeon Guillemots Everywhere

On May 13th I was walking out on the Port Orchard pier when I met John walking back to his car. When we talked, he told me he was trying to get a picture of a Pigeon Guillemot. I was a little surprised that he hadn’t seen one there, because I’d seen several relatively close to the docks on earlier visits.

As it turned out, I got one of my best shots ever at the end of the dock because the afternoon sun provided ideal lighting.

Pigeon Guillemot

The hardest thing about shooting Pigeon Guillemot’s, like most other black and white birds, is not blowing out the whites as you attempt to adjust for the overall black color of the body. Shooting in RAW gives you a chance of saving some detail in the white, as it did here.

Unlike most Pigeon Guillemots which usually dive as soon as you start looking their way, this one hung around posing for quite a while.

Pigeon Guillemot

Two days later I was visiting the boathouse at Pt Defiance, and a Pigeon Guillemot appeared a few feet from the deck I was standing on. It was so close that at first I could not get it in focus. It wasn’t until he started swimming away that I managed to get some better shots.

Pigeon Guillemot

That was the first time in the seven years I’ve been going to the boathouse that I’ve seen a Pigeon Guillemot anywhere near the docks.

Strangely, exactly the same thing happened on my latest trip to Westport. As I was photographing loons, a Pigeon Guillemot suddenly emerged right off the end of the dock, mere feet away.

Pigeon Guillemot

Of course, I’ve gotten some of my best shots of Pigeon Guillemots at Westport in previous years, so it wasn’t surprising to see one there, but it seemed strange to suddenly have so many show up so close in such a short time.

Seldom Seen Common Loons

As you probably know by now if you stop in here regularly , there are many birds I’m excited to see, particularly when they are only here for a month or two out of the year. However, there are very few birds I will purposely drive hundreds of miles to see. One species is the Harlequin Ducks; the other is the Common Loon.

I have a long history with Loons. I heard my first loon the first time I took Dawn and Tyson on a backpacking trip by myself. We were hiking a seldom-used trail near Cascade Locks. At daybreak a long mournful sound came drifting across the small lake we had camped by. The kids wanted to know what was making that sound but I had no idea. I discovered what it was several years later while watching On Golden Pond. It’s impossible to ever forget that sound. For me, it’s the sound of our quickly disappearing wilderness.

Westport is certainly no wilderness, but I stop there nearly every time I go to the beaches because I can count on seeing the Common Loon that overwinter there :

Common Loons

Actually, there are quite a few places I can see Loon in the Puget Sound. I occasionally see them off Ruston Way, but always at a considerable distance.

I go to Westport to see them up close, sometimes so close that I can’t fit them in the picture frame, no matter how hard I try.

Common Loon

I figure a few missing tail feathers is a small price to pay for seeing how the water beads up on the head after diving.

Westport is one of the few places where the Loons are so indifferent they almost seem curious about those things standing at the dock staring intently at them.

Common Loon

Of course, I’d like taking pictures of them at Westport even better if the sun would occasionally come out so that I could actually capture the beauty of the green collar

Common Loon

that too often appears black when you try to maintain the proper shades of black and gray in the rest of the body.

More Shorebirds

Although I love the Spring migration of shore birds because the sheer number of birds delights me, that doesn’t mean that the photographer in me doesn’t try to capture the beauty of each bird.

Since the birds naturally flock together for protection, it’s hard to get shots of individual birds, shots without stray body parts cluttering up the landscape. When you take over 400 shots in a few hours, though, you can usually manage to find a few shots where you can crop the picture and focus on a single bird, like this shot of a Western Sandpiper,

Western Sandpiper

a slightly larger Sanderling

,

Sanderling

an even larger Dunlin in breeding colors,

Dunlin

and a Short-Billed Dowitcher,

Short-Billed Dowitcher

the largest bird I saw on Bottle Beach the day I was there. Although these birds generally were seen with members of their own species, they all seemed to be migrating together.

I had to drive down the road to Tokeland to get pictures of the larger Marbled Godwits ,

Marbled Godwits

a bird that winters on our coast and migrates to Montana and central Canada to breed in the summer.

Spring Migration

This weekend Grays Harbor County is holding their Annual Shorebird Festival and if the weather forecasters are to believed they should finally be getting some good weather. I’ve already been to the area twice in the last two weeks and would’ve been there even more if the weather had been better.

I first observed the bird migration two years ago and haven’t missed one since, either the spring or the fall migration. As long as I can still drive, I don’t plan on missing another one.

Strangely, I like the feeling of “insignificance” I get from being surrounded by thousands of birds moving up and down the coast in huge waves.

a wave of shorebirds

and standing on a beach while thousands of shorebirds move steadily toward me until they totally surround me has been a “peak” experience.

chaotic landing

Most shorebirds don’t seem to have songs, per se, but you find yourself immersed in the sound of thousands of birds talking to each other.

Dunlin cheeping

Like most birders, I try hard not to disturb these birds whose very life depends on regaining the strength to continue their arduous journey. So it’s particularly reassuring when birds suddenly decide to take a quick nap mere feet in front of you.

Sleeping Dowitcher

The whole experience draws me back time after time, but the indefinable beauty of species like the Black-Bellied Plover is a vital part of that experience.

Black-Bellied Plover