Foggy Morning at Ft. Flagler

In the midst of a heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest, we decided to spend the day at Ft. Flagler and Port Townsend. Though it was sunny when we left Tacoma, it was completely socked in when we arrived at the beach at Ft. Flagler and were greeted by this White-Crowned Sparrow.

WhitCrnwdFog

Personally, I thought the fog added to this shot of a Cormorant atop the two piers.

PiersInFog

I began to realize the fog was going to be a problem when I tried to get some shots of these Sanderlings and realized that despite being surprisingly close that there wasn’t enough contrast for my camera to focus on them.

SndrlngFog

I must have ended up with 20 blurry shots, and that’s almost unheard of with my Canon EOS 1D.

If it hadn’t been for the bright white tail, I might not have recognized these birds as Brant.

BrandtInFog

While photographing the Brant flock, they suddenly all took flight, and I accused Leslie of startling them.

It wasn’t until we started back and Leslie pointed out this large bird on the top of a sign that I realized that they had taken flight because a Bald Eagle had flown by.

FogEagle

They must be even better than I am at recognizing a Bald Eagle by its silhouette.

Even the brilliantly colored male Harlequin duck looked drab on this morning, though it would have been a great shot in sunlight.

HrlqnFog

This White-Crowned Sparrow seemed almost as happy as I was when the fun finally began to burn off the fog nearly two hours later as we headed to Port Townsend.

HailTheSun

8 thoughts on “Foggy Morning at Ft. Flagler”

  1. The difference between the first and last shot of the White-crowned Sparrow perfectly captures the impact of heavy fog. Your photos remind me so much of our days in Port Townsend. Beautiful there, but foggy foggy foggy. Nice to see that Eagle and the Harlequin.

  2. I agree with Robin. What a difference between the two WCS photos. Fog really grays the colors. Bald Eagles are making a comeback here on the Sonoma County coastline. I spot them from time to time on the Russian River Estuary—and a good time to look up to see if they’re around is when a flock of small ducks (Coots, Buffleheads) take flight.

  3. Wondrous photos, as always – I especially love the dreamlike effect of the fog, which transforms the birds into elemental spirits. ♡
    (BTW Loren, in the fourth photo, did you mean “Brandt” or “Brant”? I looked up “Brandt” and saw that it is a type of cormorant, but IMHO those birds on the water look more like Brant geese.)

  4. Love the photos, but especially the last WCS – he is just ready to take on the world 🙂 I can’t recall how I found your blog, but I bird a lot on Vashon, so most likely Google. I very much enjoy your photos & writing – thanks for sharing 🙂

  5. I am very new to birding ..but enjoying it a lot….found your blog and pictures enticing.. I am an Indian living in UAE. Looking forward to seeing more and more beautiful pictures and posts.

    😊

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