Category: Birds

I’m not one of the crazy Washingtonians who pulls his shirt off and dons shorts at the first sign of sunshine, but I was lulled into forgetting that it is still the middle of winter around here because the sunshine I missed yesterday was still around when I got up this morning. So, I grabbed my camera and headed for the waterfront to get more bird pictures. I wasn’t disappointed, either. I loved the shadows framing this Western Grebe

But I hadn’t been there more than twenty minutes when clouds blocked out the sun in the south. Though the blue sky in the north still provided plenty of sunlight, the shadows have virtually disappeared in this picture of a male Surf Scoter:

Before long I noticed that the shutter speed on my camera had dropped well below acceptable levels, and I had to turn the ISO up to 800 and finally 1600. Even at that level I lost much of the detail on this female Red-Breasted Merganzer:

By the time I got home at 11:00 the sky was slate grey, a fine rain blasted my face, and my fingers seemed to have gone numb. There’s no sign of snow in the future and many flowers have begun to bloom, but it’s still winter here in the Pacific Northwest. The seven-day forecast is for rain.

The Puget Sound area finally ended a 27 day rainy streak, and yesterday afternoon was even sunny for an hour or two.

Leslie and I headed for the Pt. Defiance beach as soon as she got home from the mall. I grabbed my Canon and 400mm lens as we headed out the door, knowing that as low as the sun is on the horizon this time of year I wouldn’t have much time left tot take photos, no matter how bright the skies seemed.

Of course there were far more people than birds as everyone who felt trapped inside wanted outside. As little sunshine as we get here in the winter, Northwesterners have learned to take advantage of it when it is here, especially on a weekend.

Though I had a delightful walk in the cool, crisp air, I only got five pictures and most of them were underexposed.

After a few Photoshop adjustments this picture of two Barrow’s Goldeneye females seems to convey my memory of the walk, though not exactly what my camera captured:

We’ve been having the kind of weather the last few weeks that really makes me wonder if I didn’t make a mistake moving back to the Puget Sound.

Looking at the 7-day forecast you feel luck if there’s even a day that’s just cloudy with occasional rain. And even though it might appear in the 7-day forecast, it’s more than apt to disappear from the forecast a day or two before it actually appears.

I’ve struggled just to get in a half-hour with Skye without getting soaked, much less get in an extended photo walk.

Well, suddenly today about 2:30 the sky miraculously cleared. I grabbed my camera and headed to the nearest beach looking for some new shots.

Unfortunately the beach happened to be directly north of here, and the cliffs above the beach blocked most of what little sunshine there actually was.

I did get a number of pictures of birds I haven’t seen before but all of them were either in the shade or were so far out that even with a 400mm telephoto they had to blown up considerably to get a decent picture.

My favorite of the day would have to be this one of a Red-Breasted Merganser:

though the most common bird of the day were these Common Goldeneyes, another duck I’ve never seen before: