Month: July 2006

Raising Kids

It didn’t take long today before I realized it’s been awhile since I’ve been at Belfair, nearly a month it turns out. First, the Redwing Blackbirds weren’t busily defending their territory around the pond. Of course, it took seeing this

juvenile Red-Winged Blackbird to make me realize they weren’t defending their territory, because the chicks have left the nest.

I didn’t manage to get a decent picture of a Goldfinch perched on a Canadian Thistle, but I did get this picture of one feeding two chicks that seem considerably larger than her

which probably explains why she won’t stop long enough to get her picture taken.

Of course, it’s not only the birds that are busy raising the kids, as shown by this doe and her fawn trying to decide which way to go

when she got caught on the trail between two walkers. I was surprised when the two of them didn’t bolt off the trail. As it turned out, I ended up backtracking nearly a quarter mile before the doe decided that she would deign to let the two of us pass. Even then, I had to shush the fawn off the trail so it would follow its mother rather than trying to pass me on the very narrow path.

Visitors

While sitting at my computer trying to process all the photos I’d taken yesterday, I kept hearing an unusual noise through the open window.

Think it was probably a bird that I’d never heard before, I grabbed my camera and slowly walked to the front of the house, unable to locate where the sound was coming from. Peering into the deep woods across the street, I couldn’t see anything in the trees. However, my eye was suddenly caught by movement at the bottom of the tree.

A pair of young raccoons was apparently complaining to mother about being left too long or not being brought food quickly enough. Once they saw me, though, they quickly scurried up the large fir to safety.

I retreated to the front porch to see if they would descend, but never could get another picture of the two of them together after they climbed down.

It actually took a little Photoshop magic to make them emerge from the shadows even shooting at 400 ISO. I’ll have to try to remember how cute they looked here when they are foraging on the back porch at 2:00 A.M. and Skye is barking frantically at the patio door.

Birding with Lens

There were Goldfinches everywhere at Nisqually today, and I devoted much of my picture taking to trying to get a good picture of one sitting on a Canadian thistle, apparently a main source of food. Unfortunately, the clearest shot I got of a Goldfinch was one sitting on a plastic post, not a thistle, though it wasn’t nearly as clear as the shot I got of one at my backyard feeder last week, and I really wanted a picture of the bird in it’s â€?”naturalâ€? setting.

That said, here’s the best shot I could get today, which leaves me with a good reason to return to Nisqually shortly:

Surprisingly to me, the best shot I got all day was this one of an American Bittern, a bird I haven’t seen for several months but managed to see twice today:

I guess it’s inevitable that the more I go out birding the more apt I am to end up getting the best shots of birds I’ve already taken good shots of. Luckily, it’s still a thrill to see a bird that I have seen very few times in my lifetime.

Birding without a Lens

I’ve previously suggested that carrying my Canon camera helps me to see more than I would otherwise see, whether it be flowers, butterflies, or, more recently, birds.

After the last few days, I’m beginning to believe that may have been an over generalization, one that should be restated: You’re more likely to see great shots when you don’t have your camera with you.

Several days ago I was swinging with the grandkids on the front porch while their dad was working on my sprinkler system. We sat there swinging for perhaps fifteen minutes and in that time saw innumerable bees, a hummingbird trying to collect the nectar faster than the bees, a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, and a pair of crows drive a Sharp-shinned hawk not more than three feet over our head.

Yesterday, while continuing to lay the lines for my drip irrigation system, a hummingbird zoomed from flower to flower, less than three feet from my head, and twice perched on flower stems and sat looking at me. It was so close I couldn’t have have taken a picture with any of my standard birding lenses anyway.

This morning while taking Skye for his daily walk we encountered a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, the closest I’ve ever seen them, flaunting themselves, knowing I didn’t have my camera with me.

Considering how much I’ve spent on cameras and lenses, I’d really like to think that using them has made me more aware of my surroundings. Once you begin to notice things, you don’t suddenly stop noticing them. I suspect I probably didn’t have to spend that much money to become more aware of my surroundings.