Category: Special Places

Nisqually’s Blue Frog

It’s tempting to go birding looking for specific “trophy” birds, large birds that I have never seen before. I’ll have to admit that I’m not beyond getting quite excited about seeing a bird I’ve never seen before, particularly if it’s a raptor. In other words, I’d really like to see Nisqually’s resident Bald Eagles.

But that’s really not the reason I walk there. I’d like to think that I’d enjoy the walk if I never even saw a bird, but I’m more than happy simply enjoying birds I’ve seen before and little birds that I’m not even aware of having seen before.

That said, I’m still having trouble not spending considerable time watching the herons, particularly since they seem to have many more than normal this year, and, no matter how many times you’ve seen one, they strike me as a beautiful bird:

I’m also slightly ashamed to admit that I’m not above having my interest peaked by an oddity or two. While taking a picture of a frog in the main pond, an attendant informed me that the they have a “blue bullfrog” in residence, and she was kind enough to actually take me down to the pond to see it:

I would never have spotted it without her assistance, but I enjoyed sitting and talking to her about the frog and more mundane attractions at the refuge. I’m not sure that herons and blue frogs really go together, but we’ll just pretend we have our “blue thing” going on today.

Learning To See

It seems a little strange to say that I’m learning “to see” at my age, but in terms of bird watching that’s precisely what I’m trying to do.

If you’re like me, you have birdwatching friends who seem to magically see birds where none exist. Unfortunately, I’m not naturally one of those people.

But I’m trying to become one. Two of my best pictures on my trip to Nisqually last Friday were taken after I’d stopped and paused, listening for bird sounds that might clue me in to nearby birds. I hadn’t paused very long before I heard a tapping noise right over my head.

The first time I got a picture of this small Downy Woodpecker:

or, at least what I’m calling a Downy Woodpecker until one of my more informed visitors tells me otherwise. Sometimes it seems even harder to find a match in the guidebooks for what you’ve seen than it was to see the bird in the first place.

Not more than twenty minutes later I repeated the above scenario, this time resulting in my favorite picture of the day, a Red Shafted Flicker:

I had spotted several of these on previous walks at Pt. Defiance but had never been able to get a decent picture of one.

Judging from last night’s bust at the nature center, though, I’m a long ways from becoming one of those gifted birdwatchers who can make birds appear on command. Despite lots of bird calls, the only birds I saw were some ducks who headed right for us when we crossed the bridge. For some reason, hard-to-see birds are more appealing than those who pursue you to get handouts.

Slowing Down

Walking the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge the last two weeks I’ve been struck by how many visitors seem preoccupied with mere exercise, apparently unaware of the abundant wildlife. Many pay more attention to the iPod stuck in their ear than to the rich symphony of bird songs surrounding them.

Though I’ll admit to being attracted to the novelty of seeing new birds, I’m mainly walking there once a week because walking the same paths day after day in Point Defiance Park, as beautiful as they are, can become routine. One begins to take even such beauty for granted.

Looking and listening for new birds serves as a focal point for paying attention to what is, increasing my overall awareness and enriching the whole experience.

I am as delighted to notice small frogs swimming in a primordial soup,

or to lose myself in abstract reflections of reeds in crystalline water,

as to glimpse a hawk swooping in the distance,

reminding me of Whitman’s barbaric yawp.

While standing gazing off into the distance, both near and far, a passerby asked, “Are you a decoy?” because I’d stood still for so long.

I was amazed to discover I had spent nearly five hours covering a little over 7 miles of trails. I must have spent considerable time standing because I can easily walk five miles in just over an hour.

Sometimes you have to slow down to get where you want to go.

An American Bittern

Having been told last week that early morning was the best time to get pictures at The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, I got up about 6:00 a.m. Friday morning and left the house by 6:30 for the half hour drive.

While I’m not entirely convinced that the picture taking was actually any better at that hour, I did get some very different pictures this week than I did last week. Of course, part of the reason was I didn’t focus as much on the Great Blue Herons, even though they seem to be featured at the refuge this time of year. Simply put, they’re everywhere and they make great subjects for photographs because, unlike most other birds, they stand still for great lengths of time.

Ironically, even though I was in too much of a rush to get out of the house to bother with showers, etc., all of the early birds I took picures of seemed to be more concerned with preening themselves than getting to work on time or earning a good meal.

This picture of ducks and Canadian geese preening captures both the overall darkness and the low angle of a sun just above the horizon:

Considering that the American Bittern is rarely seen, I guess my prize photograph of the day would have to be this one:

where the bittern strikes a typical pose, quite convincingly pretending to be just another part of the reeds. Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for volunteer refuge worker who told me about it, I doubt I would have ever seen it.