Category: Theler Wetlands

With a rainy weekend predicted and some partial sunshine this morning, I headed out for Belfair early this morning. Though I managed to flush a Green Heron, he was much too fast to get a shot of, and, other than that, birds were somewhat scarce, except for Song Sparrows. For a while, I wondered if the one from my front porch had hitched a ride with me. This one even sang the same song right above my head so I’d be sure to notice him:

Maybe Song Sparrows are meant to be my spirit bird this summer. I certainly haven’t seen a single American Bittern after seeing so many last year.

Though birds were scarce, flowers were plentiful. I pushed my close-up lens to its limits to try to get two Columbine in a single frame:

This picture of a bee in a wild rose might be my all-time favorite bee picture, though I had to crop it in order to make the bee appear large enough in this smaller format:

Despite some beautiful and long-anticipated sunshine, it was a rather unexciting birding trip to Belfair yesterday.

In fact the highlight of the day was getting a picture of this cowbird, which, coincidentally, Mike had emailed me about this weekend. When I suggested that although it was a striking bird I was less than enthusiastic about its habit of laying it’s egg in the nests of other birds and letting them raise the offspring, Mike shot back an email debunking the myth that such parasitism played a significant role in the North American decline of songbirds.

Strangely, this one seemed determined to ensure that I saw it’s true beauty

though I was more fascinated with how protective these Canadian Geese are, even driving off another pair of Geese who dared to enter their space. It’s no wonder they’ve multiplied so rapidly since I doubt that they lose many goslings.

Thanks to Shelley’s recent promotion of Think Tank’s Rotation 360° camera pack my walk took nearly twice as long as normal because I was carrying a pack full of camera equipment.

No, the extra weight didn’t slow me down THAT much.

Since I was carrying a close-up lens in addition to my 400mm telephoto, I stopped repeatedly to take flower pictures. Normally, I just note the new growth and move on, but yesterday I stopped, pulled out my close-up lens and recorded what I saw:

And, of course, I would be remiss if I hadn’t noted the outburst of wild roses,

though I think my favorite picture of the day is this Columbine:

Although the rest of the nation may still be stuck in winter mode, our trip to Belfair this morning confirmed that it is, indeed, spring here.

Canada Geese were nesting:

while Mallard ducklings were dodging between reeds:

Gold crowned sparrows pecked at emerging flowers and leaves:

and this White Crowned Sparrow, obviously realizing I had never seen one before, kept his distance to ensure I wouldn’t get too good of a picture: