Tag Archives: wildlife

Close Encounter With A Swan

One of the nice aspects of mirrorless cameras is using the tilting screen to see the shot while holding the camera away from you. I took advantage of this when I was near a swan at Mottisfont. We were walking alongside the water and the swan was swimming towards us. I wanted to get a close shot from low down but swans are not always the most friendly beasts. Getting myself down there didn’t seem like a good plan. Holding the camera out while looking at the screen seemed a better idea and the swan, while not totally enthusiastic, was less annoyed that way.

What Spooked All Of The Gulls?

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Just off Cattle Point on San Juan Island, there is a small island which, on the day we were visiting, was very popular with a load of gulls. While we were standing, looking in that direction, all of the gulls took off at once and were circling for a few minutes before they settled down again. I had assumed that a bird of prey was nearby to cause them to get airborne. There are plenty of eagles in the area. However, I couldn’t make out anything specific that had caused them to be startled. Maybe just one of them decided to take off and the rest followed just in case!

Killdeer Versus The Worm

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While I was down at Juanita Bay one weekend, a killdeer was hanging out on a muddy flat near me. It was busy extracting worms from the mud to snack on. The worms were not totally onboard with this plan and they were doing their best to stay in the mud. Some times the killdeer won the struggle and sometimes the worm did!

How Close Can I Get To The Hummingbirds?

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We had a quiet time with the hummingbirds in our back yard for a while. I am not sure where they went but they were not on the feeders very often. However, that has changed as summer has rolled on and we now have a ton of them in the yard, often fighting with each other over who gets to feed. I decided to go and stand out near one of the feeders and stay still to see whether I could get closer to them or not. Little did I realize how uninterested in me that they were.

After I had been there a few minutes, they came in to feed and also to check me out. They would fly up to me and then move around me, stopping as they went. I seemed to be a curiosity for a moment and then they lost interest. Instead they would start sparring with each other. Some dramatic aerial jousting would take place, often around me. It must have been something to see from our deck because it felt amazing being there. No pictures of that because it all happened at high speed but I was able to get some shots of them as they hovered near the feeder at the times when they weren’t in battles.

Heron Swallowing Its Lunch

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Herons hunting for their food have been on here before. I have often been trying to get good shots of them making the strike as they go after a fish in the shallows. The effort to then eat that fish has also been covered here. Therefore, I am going to be repetitive today. I happened to be a lot closer than usual to a heron when it was fishing and I got some good close up shots of its head as it swallowed its meal. Looks like the fish didn’t have much of a chance!

Baby Red Wing Blackbird

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Earlier in the year, I got to see the red winged blackbirds nesting in Juanita Bay Park and then defending their nest from threats real and perceived. The humans were not causing them any problems but the herons were happy to much on a baby blackbird. It wasn’t long before these babies had fledged and were out with their parents. As with many baby birds, they were very demanding regarding food and not interested in getting it themselves. I came across this parent and child along one of the boardwalks. The chick looks like it should be able to take care of finding food but instead it just hung around making a ton of noise while the parent was busy trying to find something to keep it quiet!

Salmon Climbing The Ladder

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The salmon that come through the locks in Ballard come in three waves according to the park rangers. There are three types of salmon and each type comes at a slightly different time of year. (I’m sure the sales like this so they get three feeding times!). Within the fish ladder, they have a viewing gallery which allows you to see the fish as they loiter for a while before surging up the next step in the ladder against the flowing water.

It is quite impressive to see how fast they can go when they make an effort. They swim gently against the current in the viewing area waiting for a time that seems appropriate to them. Then they align themselves with the inlet port through which the water is rushing. This needs a dose of acceleration to avoid being pushed back into the gallery and then, once they are stabilized, a surge of effort and they zip up the port. Photos don’t do it much justice but video is a better medium. The reflections off the glass are not ideal but you will get the idea.

Jumping Chickadee

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Tracking moving birds can be tricky, particularly if they are small ones that are very agile and move fast. There was a chickadee perched on the railings of one of the platforms in Juanita Bay Park and I got a few shots of it as it hopped along the wood. A couple of times it launched into the air as I was tracking it. The shots are not that sharp as I was not prepared for it to move and it was quick but I found the look it is – as if it was jumping up – to be rather interesting. A cute looking bird.

Butterflies Or Moths?

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A bit of a Google search on the distinguishing characteristics of butterflies versus moths helped me out a bit but I don’t think it was quite as clear cut as I was hoping. We have a fluttering insect that seems to like our lavender plants a lot. I spent a little time one evening trying to get some shots of them at work. They don’t stay on any one section for long so a little patience and luck is in order. I didn’t know whether they were moths or butterflies. I think that they might be butterflies but, if they aren’t please don’t be too harsh in the comments.

Bees On The Lavender

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Nancy has been busy planting in our back yard at home and one of the plants she has gone with is a lavender plant. Some of the plants take a while to get established and even longer to attract the wildlife but the lavender seems to be an instant hit. It has had a steady stream of bees visiting it as well as other creatures. Bees are the focus today.

I spent a little time lying on the ground by the plant with the macro lens fitted. This is not necessarily an ideal choice as my macro is not a high end lens and it has pretty slow focusing motors. The camera tries to drive it but often it can’t keep up. However, stick with it and you can get some shots that work out. One of the things I had not anticipated was the proboscis that the bees have. Maybe they tuck it away when not on plants but, as they move between parts of the plant, it stays out and it is rather an intimidating looking item!