More of the Same

Luckily, Leslie and I get out much more often than my blog would indicate.  Sometimes it’s so cloudy or the birds I get pictures of are ones I’ve shown so often that I can’t get inspired to spend the time deciding which to post or the time to refine them.  Even with more rain than usual, we generally manage to get out to Theler Wetlands in Belfair and the Port Townsend Marina once a week.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, sunny days quite often start with heavy fog, and, unfortunately, early morning is the best time to see birds.  Here’s what Theler Wetlands looked like on a recent morning. 

Under these conditions, you’re lucky to see any birds, and when you do it’s hard to recognize what you’re seeing unless you’ve learned to identify birds from their profile, like this female Bufflehead that floated out of the sky to give us a look.

A small consolation is that you can often get closer to birds than you would ever get on a bright, sunny day.  This Mourning Dove was so close and so unconcerned that I had a hard time fitting it in the frame.

When it’s foggy I have to look harder to find something to photograph. On a recent trip it was this Hair Ice, also known as Frost Beard, which we have probably overlooked for several years but became fascinated with once we really looked at it. It looks so bright because the sun had begun to break through, and, more importantly, it was close enough that the fog didn’t interfere with the light.

Leslie spotted it again in several places after we read up on it, but it seems to have totally disappeared on yesterday’s visit.

Fog or no fog, any winter day here in the Pacific Northwest without rain is a good day.  And heck, if you’re willing to wait an hour or so, the fog might finally clear and you’ll be able to see birds you missed on the first half of the walk.