Month: April 2016

Horned Grebes in Breeding Plumage

I’ll have to admit that the Common Merganser I showed in my last post is not the only bird that I have been stalking for awhile. My favorite bird to stalk this time of year is actually the Horned Grebe, and, particularly, the Horned Grebes at the Port Orchard Marina. I’ve been following their plumage transition for several years now. Even after several years I’m amazed how these birds transform from subtle shades of white and gray to brilliant oranges and blacks.

Horned Grebes are usually numerous at Port Orchard and they’re used to people so it’s usually easy to capture the transition, but that’s not been true this year. There seem to be fewer grebes this year and more people whenever I’ve managed to get there.

Still, I was quite happy when I managed to get this shot of one almost transformed into its breeding plumage.

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Of course, Port Orchard isn’t the only place to find Horned Grebes. While looking for Pigeon Guillemots at Port Townsend, I spotted several Horned Grebes. This one looked rather scruffy as it transitioned from winter plumage to breeding plumage.

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The photographer in me tends to focus on the Grebe’s brilliant colors, but Leslie was fascinated with the way they swam under water and demanded that I try to get a shot. It’s really hard to focus on anything under the water, but these shots as they just dove suggests their underwater agility.

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After sighting a male Red-Breasted Merganser in full breeding colors, I had forgotten about the grebes but in the middle of trying to capture a good shot of the merganser this Horned Grebe in full breeding colors suddenly appeared. I couldn’t resist this shot, even though it was further out than I would have liked and I had to crop the shot to produce this photo.

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Although there are only a few weeks between the time the grebes start to change colors and the time they depart for their breeding grounds, I’m still hoping to get a couple more close-ups at Port Orchard.

Common Mergansers Really Aren’t that Common Around Here

I spotted my first male Common Merganser of the year nearly three weeks ago, and it fled so swiftly that the best I could manage was this blurred shot of it just taking off.

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Despite that I probably got the best shots I’ll ever get of a male Common Merganser in breeding colors two years ago in Santa Rosa, I was determined to get a good shot this year, too. I became even more determined when several pairs of mergansers

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showed up regularly two weeks ago, though they were shy enough to hang out on the other side of the Union River at a bend that is relatively inaccessible from the refuge.

Paying attention to where they fished and where they hung out finally paid off when I captured this shot of a pair resting on the Union River.

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It’s easy to see why Leslie couldn’t believe these were the same kind of ducks when you see them sitting together like this, but if you ignore the plumage the similarities become clearer.

I even managed to catch a shot of the male swimming up Union River that captures a little of its beauty.

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Hopefully if I keep watching I’ll manage to get a good shot of a male merganser flying, though these mergansers seem to have become pretty comfortable around people now that hunting season is a distant memory and seem content to swim away rather than take flight.

A Day at the Beach

Sighting a Pigeon Guillemot at Port Orchard reminded me that I hadn’t been to Ocean Shores and Westport recently since I’ve gotten my best shot of Guillemots in the Westport marina. With sunshine forecast for the beach and Leslie still working, I headed out early to Ocean Shores.

I can’t remember a nicer day at the beach with temperatures in the mid-60’s and none of the usual fog the beach gets when it’s warm inland. It was probably too much to ask that it also be a great birding day, and it wasn’t. Although I managed to skin up my knee walking the Jetty, I didn’t see anything but Gulls. The first pond at the sewage plant didn’t have a bird in it, and the only shot I managed to get at Ocean Shores was this one of a male Greater Scaup in the foreground and a brown, female Greater Scaup in the background.

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Things didn’t look too great in Westport, either, when I first arrived. The only Pigeon Guillemot I spotted the whole day was a long ways off shore.

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The only Loons I saw when I first arrived were way off shore, too, apparently taking advantage of the low tide to fish areas that might not have been as easily accessed in normal tides. Though I usually see them with crabs in their beaks, this one appeared to have a clam, not a crab.

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Despite some quick online research, though, I couldn’t confirm that clams were part of loons’ diet.

I decided to drive further south and return to when the tide was higher. Recent rains made Midway Beach totally inaccessible and construction had totally changed the harbor at Tokeland, but I did manage to get some fairly nice shots of a Western Grebe.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t spot a single Marbled Godwit in the harbor or on the island where you’re also apt to find them. I wondered if the recent port construction had forced them to find more suitable habitat, or if they just hadn’t arrived yet.

I didn’t have to wait long to discover that there are, indeed, some Godwits in the area for they were waiting for me when I returned to the Westport marina.

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Because there was a small body of water between us, I was able to get closer to these Godwits than I had been able to do previously.

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It’s also the first time I realized that they are a relatively small bird and, despite the long legs, a little smaller than a typical gull.

The high point of the day, though, came when I found a Common Loon near the dock as I entered the marina. Not sure I’ve ever gotten a shot from this particular angle,

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but this is the angle I work to get,

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and the reason I keep returning to Westport year after year.

For me, this is Loon Heaven.

Another Foggy Morning at Theler

As I’ve noted before, when they predict sunny days in the Pacific Northwest this time of year, what they really mean is that you’ll be able to see the sun for a change, as in this shot.

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After six months of the rainiest Fall-Winter in PNW history, I’m not complaining at all about having to walk in morning fog, even when you’ve just driven through a half hour of sunshine to get where you’re going.

Even my photographer alter ego has gotten used to trying to get the best shots he can no matter what the weather. This small flock of Green-Winged Teal seems to drift in space while walking on water.

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This pair of Canada Geese could be confused for our forebears who settled the Plains.

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Comparing this shot of a male Tree Swallow with one taken on a sunny day makes me wonder what color blue it really is.

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Of course, Nature has it’s own sense of humor so it’s not surprising that the best shot of the afternoon, when the fog had finally cleared, was of a black and white Pigeon Guillemot.

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