Category: Special Places

On days like Friday I find myself wondering if it’s just my imagination, or is it true more often than not that I bring the wrong camera/lens when I’m out walking.

About half way through my walk at Nisqually, it became obvious that the highlight of the walk was the beautiful flowers and that a 400 mm telephoto lens is not the best lens to be taking pictures of flowers.

It’s difficult with a telephoto to sharply focus on more than one element of the photographic, particularly when the subject is relatively near:

It’s more difficult to isolate particular elements than it would be with a close-up lens

And it’s harder to get a sharp image of various elements:

On the other hand, if I’d brought my close-up lens I would never have gotten this shot of a Golden-Crowned Sparrow

nor my first shot of the diminutive Common Yellowthroat which kept its distance no matter how patient or quiet I was

I suppose I could carry multiple cameras and multiple lenses, but then the walk wouldn’t be nearly as pleasant and it’s unlikely I would walk as far as I do.

Since it’s supposed to rain the rest of the week, I decided to take my weekly trip to Nisqually today. Though it was overcast most of the day, it was still a nice walk especially since I was accompanied by one of the volunteers who mans the visitor’s center.

After a walker told us he’d seen an otter just cross the trail, the volunteer spotted the otter hiding behind a log. He actually blended in much better than this photo would suggest, because I lightened it considerably in Photoshop.

Photo or not, it was quite a thrill just to see the otter again.

Overall, though, there were very few birds to be seen today. The volunteer explained that many of the winter residents had headed out to their summer breeding area and the song birds are still a few weeks away.

Another reason for so few sightings became obvious a while later when I captured this shot:

Most of the birds are too busy nesting and parenting to be spending time showing off their fine feathers. Canadian Geese may be considered pests in many areas today, but there’s always room in my heart for another gosling or two.

Mike forwarded this blog entry from Whiskey River with the note that it “made me think of you,� which I considered a great compliment.

To create, the painter needs paint, brushes, and canvas; the sculptor, wood, stone, or metal, and tools; the poet, words and a pen and paper – or computer; the composer, sounds, notes, paper. *But for one awakened to the nature of Mind, the entire universe is the canvas; hands, feet, emotions, and intellect the implements*. Each moment is joy ungrounded, ripe, and creative, when we are liberated from the enslaving notions of “This is my head, this is my body, this is my mind.” Here, at the core of each of us, is creativity, here is the art of living. If the mission of the artist is “to make the invisible visible,” in the words of Leonardo da Vinci, the purpose of Zen is to bring into consciousness the substrata of both the unconscious and the conscious.”
– Philip Kapleau
Awakening to Zen

Of course, I’d already read it because I’ve read Whiskey River faithfully since 2001 when I first started blogging. Strangely, though, I’m not sure I really read it until Mike re-sent it, perhaps because I didn’t think of it as applying to me when I first read it.

Of course, I don’t think I really live up to the ideal expressed here, but it is my ideal, my ultimate goal. Although I lack the talent to express my ideas effectively in any one media, I like to think that I can compensate for that lack of talent by living my whole life creatively, and doing so is what brings the greatest joy to my life, whether it’s writing haiku, taking photographs, landscaping my yard, making my own furniture, or carving decorations for the house.

I probably can’t convince people that we need to make greater efforts to protect what is left of our environment, but I can still find joy in capturing moments of nature’s beauty, whether a Rufous Hummingbird perched on a branch

or spring blossoms

I’ve been somewhat remiss in reading poetry this week, though I have a couple of works awaiting my attention. Last week’s garden work still calls, it’s been exceptionally beautiful here, it’s Spring Break for school kids, and, despite the fact that I don’t teach anymore it still seems wrong to be reading over Spring break.

So, I spent the day walking Nisqually again, where I saw lots of things I’ve seen before, but also a number of new sights. For instance, when I revisted the Great Horned Owl nest I found that mother’s place had been claimed by this fuzzy little guy:

The most notable change, though was the return of the Wood Ducks, who could be seen in a number of areas:

And though I’ve noticed a considerable amount of scat in the past, I finally got a glimpse of my first live coyote:

However, I spent the most time watching these Horned Grebes:

and admiring their beautiful breeding colors. I still find it amazing that this is the same bird that I showed in an earlier entry.

I must admit, though, that my day ended on a slightly sour note when I read in the log that two Red Throated Loons had been spotted, and I had managed to miss them entirely, despite driving long distances recently in search of them.