Month: April 2017

Lael’s Grandpa

If you visit very often you’ve probably figured out I’d rather be behind the camera than in front of it. However, it has become a tradition to bring cameras for any of the grandkids who would like to take pictures, and, on this trip, it was Lael who wanted to use the Canon SX 60HS.

I’m still editing most of the shots she took, but I particularly liked these two shots because they were the kind of portraits I used to try to get Yearbook students to take.

Ironically, this shot of me taking a picture of a huge fallen Redwood probably does a better job of showing just how big it was than the shot I ended up taking.

I like this shot enough that I may have to substitute it for my Facebook portrait that Zoe took a few years ago.

I still have a hard time identifying that old guy that greets me in the mirror every morning, but I’m pretty sure this is me.

Spring Break

Last week was Gavin’s and Lael’s Spring Break, so we decided to go to Santa Rosa to escape our rain. Since they had never visited the Redwoods, we decided to start there. Having failed to show how special the Redwoods are in previous attempts, I hoped that having Dawn, Gavin, Leslie, and Lael as props

I could do a better job of showing what a special place the coastal Redwoods really are. See, the trunks are actually wider than the 12” to 24 inches they seem on the computer screen

and are actually taller than 24 inches.

We were lucky enough to visit on a sunny day. Turns out it has been a wet winter for the Northern California Coast, too, and the Redwoods have benefitted from the extra rain even if access to the area was limited because of flooding. At least on the edges of the forest, this is the greenest I’ve seen the forests for a long time.

Redwood forests rival the Olympic Peninsula’s Hoh Rain Forest in their lushness.

Here even dead trees spring back to life.

Deep in the forest, though, towering redwoods shut out even the brightest light

making it seem you’ve entered magical forests of your childhood where anything is possible,

>

even moments of bright, pristine beauty.

Horned Grebes in Full Breeding Colors

Although we had just returned from a week-long trip to California, I decided to go birding Tuesday because it was predicted to be the lone sunny day of the week and because I was afraid that the Horned Grebes would have left for their breeding ground if I didn’t get there this week.

As it turned out, it looked like they had already left when I arrived at Port Orchard. In fact, I didn’t spot a single Grebe until I had reached the end of the marina, and it was still not in full breeding colors.

I was a little disappointed, but things took a turn for the better while walking back to the car. This Grebe popped up just a little ways back, and the clouds had actually cleared enough to give the impression that the water was blue, not gray.

I’m pretty sure it is in full breeding colors, and those horns really look like horns in this shot.

I actually saw two more Horned Grebes as I continued back to the car, though I’m not entirely sure that at least one of them was the second one I had already photographed, especially since I was seeing it from a completely different angle.

My favorite shot of the day was this one, taken just as I walked up the ramp to the street.

I’m really glad I went even though we should have stayed home and cleaned up after our California trip. The last thing I really needed was more shots to process, but that seems to be a fairly common theme in my life, and I always prefer to have too many pictures rather than no pictures.

Don’t Overlook the Little Things in Life

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you missed the little things in life until they actually return. That’s certainly true in the case of these four little birds, though I’ll have to admit that I didn’t even realize this was a Golden-Crowned Sparrow until it looked me right in the eye.

On the other hand, I recognized this American Goldfinch from a long ways off. That gold color and those racing stripes are unmistakable.

Although I’ve yet to see my favorite Marsh Wren by the long boardwalk, this guy was doing a good imitation.

I think I missed the Tree Swallows most of all. Few things lift me up more than walking down a trail being surrounded by a flock of diving Tree Swallows.