Category: Special Places

Bee, Mine

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:

Spring at Northwest Trek

My gut tells me that it’s really not fair posting pictures of “wild” animals taken at Northwest Trek, but when I think about how hard it is to get a decent picture while driving around trapped in a tram while the animals seem determined to conceal themselves in the shade I feel like there is at least some merit in showing interesting pictures, either to encourage others to visit the park or to further raise awareness of the beauty of these wild animals and what we risk losing if we continue to destroy their environment.

Most of the buffalo, deer and elk were in the midst of shedding their winter coat, so even when I managed to get a clear shot of them they looked rather scruffy. Luckily, this Big-Horn Ram was in much better shape than most:

Of course, the raccoons and the otters are more like my buddy Skye who loses his hair gradually all over my den, at least what hair he doesn’t rub off on my pants when he greets me as I get up or return home.

I loved this pose of the raccoon, perhaps because it reminds me of the way Skye stretches out while still standing watch at the window, protecting us from those pesky FED-EX deliverymen:

But my favorite sequence of shots were of the River Otter, rather amazingly since I’ve never managed to get a shot that I’ve even kept from previous visits:

I think the grandkids enjoyed the visit almost as much as I did, especially since my cold finally seems to be getting better.

A Senior Moment

Either iCal or I suffered a senior moment a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that I was scheduled for a dental appointment May 24th. As usual, I arranged to have lunch with several Vancouver friends, only to discover that the real appointment was June 12th.

I figured it would be rude to cancel the lunch, so I drove down anyway despite the high cost of gasoline here in the PNW, $3.49 per gallon. Luckily it was a great lunch with some interesting discussion, followed by a long visit to my old hiking partner.

As a result, however, I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time at Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge as I’d wanted to, and the sun was settling in the East by the time I got there. Needless to say, it made the photography harder than it would have been otherwise.

For instance, the highlight of the day was sighting a male Ruddy Duck in full color:

I was certainly happy with how close he came, that blue bill stands out beautifully, and his tail is standing up in the traditional pose.

Unfortunately, the light was behind him and much of his body lacks detail, even after trying to compensate for shadow in Aperture.

This shot, taken later after he had moved to the other side of the pond,has much better overall exposure, but he was further away and I couldn’t get him to pose as he’d done in the earlier shot.

This frustration makes me appreciate good wildlife photography more than I would otherwise because I realize just how many hours must have been spent to get the perfect lighting and be in perfect position to get the shot the photographer wanted. Heck, it even gives me an excuse to fill up more of my hard drive with imperfect shots of Ruddy Ducks until I actually get the one I want to get, not to mention lingering over that Canon 600mm lens that I’ll probably never own.

I had different problems trying to get a good picture of a Cinnamon Teal, a bird that seemed everywhere on the refuge, though I’ve only seen one in the wild before. They spend most of their time in the weeds along the shore, so most of the time I actually flushed them before I knew they were there. I had many blurry shots of foliage with no apparent sign of a bird, but I did manage to get this one

which has a certain appeal despite, or, perhaps, because of, the blur.

My favorite shot was probably this one

because it shows the Cinnamon Teal in its natural setting, even though later I got another shot in a pond that had even better resolution.

In the end, it was a great day even though I felt a little guilty wasting a tank of gas and thirty plus dollars on an unnecessary trip. Maybe I need more senior moments.

Tote That Load

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: