Month: August 2012

Back to the Point Defiance Rose Garden

I’ve not only gone birding, I’ve also visited local gardens recently. Leslie and I walked down to the Point Defiance Rose Garden on a recent Sunday, managing to get some exercise while also soaking in sunshine and the beauty of the garden.

Of course, the weekend sunshine also brought out lots of people, and I felt a bit like these turtles must have felt while out sunning themselves.

turtles on rock

When roses are this beautiful,

two roses

though, there’s no excuse for not exploring the beauty of the garden, no matter how many people are there.

The peripheral gardens were also at their best, perhaps even brighter than the more stately rose gardens where plants know their place and don’t crowd their neighbors.

yellow flower

The dahlias were also starting to bloom,

Dahlia

and I imagine by now that even the later dahlias have started to bloom, though they still had not done so when I was there.

If you keep your eyes open you’ll probably see lots of non-human visitors to the garden, too.

Tiger Swallowtail

Meanwhile, Back at Home

I recently realized I’ve been home from Colorado for nearly three weeks and I’ve literally been living in the past on my blog. Luckily, that’s not true in my real life; I haven’t been merely sitting home remembering my trip. Even though local birding hans’t been great, I have gone to Theler twice since I’ve returned.

My favorite sighting was this one of a Virginia Rail,

Virginia Rail

the first time I’ve seen it one several years. I was surprised, and lucky, to have seen it on both trips.

I’ve also seen Cedar Waxwings

Cedar Waxwing

both times, and though I see them fairly regularly, they’re still a personal favorite because of their striking colors.

While waiting for the Cedar Waxwings to return, I was even lucky enough to see this Yellow Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Feeding at the same tree.

At the same time the birds seem to disappear, or, at least hide, the dragonflies appear

dragonfly

and I find them nearly as fascinating as the birds, and just as hard to photograph.

And, of course, there are always flowers to see at Theler when birding is slow.

a striking flower

Even if I’m not sure what it is, it is strikingly beautiful.

A Break on the Long Ride Home

After two weeks on the road and seven hours in Grand Teton National Park, I decided it was time to head home. I didn’t expect it would be a pleasant trip, and it wasn’t. Right out of Jackson Hole I ran into a major rainstorm with thunder and lightning which slowed me down considerably and made it impossible to get some scenic shots I was hoping for. Ironically, after that I was confronted by grass fires as nearly 300 miles of Idaho was burning, and there were many highway signs warning of delays. To make matters worse, in Boise I ran into a major traffic jam caused by an obviously fatal accident. By the time I got home at 3:00 AM, I was exhausted.

Still, there was some pleasant breaks on the way. I seldom get the chance to see a Swan

Swan

in the wild, certainly never in the summer.

My favorite moment, though, came when I spotted a large flock of Franklin Gulls next to the highway. I had seen them earlier in the year at Malheur but had been unable to get a shot of them there. Even traveling at 75 miles/hour, I had to pull over and track the flock down. I followed them up the river and found a single spot where the flock landed, and it was relatively easy to get a good shot of them.

small flock of Franklin Gulls

I even managed to get a shot of one of them landing quite easily.

Franklin Gull landing

Unfortunately, it was much more problematic getting a shot of them in flight. The rain hadn’t stopped and the light was rather poor so setting a fast enough shutter speed to prevent blur caused excessive noise.

Still, it’s never easy capturing birds in flight, so I was relatively happy with this shot,

Franklin Gulls flying

Though it would have been nice to have blue water in the background. It was one of those unexpected treats that help to make a trip more enjoyable.