No great story for this one. I was just watching a turtle as it same in Lake Washington and, as it came towards me, I thought it looked good so grabbed some shots. No action, no feeding, just a turtle swimming lazily along.
This 737 Max 8 was flying a few missions from BFI shortly before I left the region. At first I figured it was just another jet that, while in Ural’s colors, was likely going to another airline and needed to be repainted. However, when it taxied by me, I noticed it had an “experimental” marking on the fuselage. Then I saw that it had some instrumentation mounted in one of the windows. Apparently, it is doing something different. No idea what it is and I probably will never know.
I was walking through the marina at Kenmore after a visit to Log Boom Park and then an abortive hope that a floatplane was coming out of Kenmore Air’s base. A couple of chaps were working on the aft deck of a boat that was used for survey activities. Their work was focused on a remotely operated vehicle, and they were popping the casing off it to adjust whatever needed adjusting. I have regularly pondered whether to get a drone for aerial photography and videography but, seeing this device, I got quite into the idea of underwater work too. Maybe I can get one for Christmas??
After some time in Seattle with Nancy, I persuaded her to allow a brief detour to Paine Field. Royal Air Maroc was taking delivery of a 787-9 and I wanted to see it go. That assumed it was on time which is never guaranteed with delivery flights. Two of their jets were parked up at the delivery center although I was only hoping to get one moving. I don’t think the other was leaving but, if it was, I didn’t want to test patience by finding out. The conditions were a bit gloomy and the jet would be airborne a long way from me so I decided to go with video instead. The results are below.
While mum was visiting us for Christmas, we made a trip to Skagit to see if we could see some snow geese. We did but that element of the story will be another post. We also wanted to see whether we could see any of the short-eared owls up there. The weather was not great with plenty of rain sweeping across the flats, but the owls don’t get to stay at home when the weather is bad, so we tried our luck. We got there and no one was around which is not common for Skagit. Despite this, we parked up alongside the marshes to see if anything moved.
A few minutes of nothing much and then a northern harrier appeared so things weren’t a total loss. However, we didn’t need to wait long and soon the owls were on the prowl. As is normally the case, they were keeping themselves a little away from where we were, but we had a good view of them. Then, one of them flew in close by and landed on a post in the ground directly across from the car. It really couldn’t have done a better job. I was able to get some shots of it sitting there in the rain with its wings slightly out – presumably because of the wet.
It sat there for a while and then it fluffed up the feathers to shake off the water before taking flight. This couldn’t have been better set up for mum to get her owl experience. We continued to have them flying around near us as they hunted but we never got so close again. Indeed, one of them repeated the post trick further down the road but I didn’t feel the need to dash down there. Besides, the rain was coming and going and, by jumping out to take pictures, I had got a little damp. At least I had a warm car to retreat to, unlike the damp owls!
I think it is safe to say that we have had a pretty gloomy winter in the Puget Sound region. The grey and damp conditions have predominated, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise since the area is rather known for that sort of thing. However, there are occasional days when the sun has shown itself and they are all the more special when they arrive as a result of their rarity. Even better, I was able to spend some time at Boeing Field on one day when the sun appeared. It was later in the day which, of course, is beneficial from the point of view of getting the better light. The flow was southerly, which is not the best since it is only sky-based shots rather than something with a background but, in the middle of winter, beggars can’t be choosers. Whether it was a Boeing Max on test of a Cirrus Vision, they looked great in the soft winter light.
Since we have left the Pacific Northwest, there won’t be too many encounters with the BC Ferries fleet for a while. I have taken a couple of ferry rides up there in the recent past and got a few shots of the boats as we went along. Some were the passenger ferries, but I also got one of the other operators that only does freight movements. I’ll stick them in anyway, even if they aren’t BC Ferries. I shall now get to see a whole new selection of ferries in the UK so stay tuned for more ferry action before too long.
While at LAX, I did see two Korean A380s depart in close proximity. Korean Air is buying Asiana (or may have done so by the time this appears) so I imagine this won’t continue for long. The Asiana colors will, presumably, vanish before too long. I decided a bit of video was in order so shot the take off roll and climb out. Below is that video.
The main purpose for our trip to Skagit with mum was to try and find the snow geese. Our previous visit had been thwarted so we were skeptical as to whether we would have any luck this time. Instead of fields of geese, we saw a very large number of swans. They were all over some of the fields, so they were our new target. However, the geese hadn’t totally failed us. In amongst the swans, a small group of geese swooped down to land in the same field. I have no idea why they were alone and not with thousands of their brethren.
The swans did make for a good level of compensation. There were a few that occasionally took off or landed but never in a particularly convenient spot for me photos. However, watching them as they munched through the contents of the fields was a good alternative. It has got me excited about trying to get some more swan shots back in the UK – this time with the mute swans.
The holidays have been known to introduce some interesting freighters to Seattle as UPS buys in additional capacity. This year was a touch disappointing with only a little bought in help and nothing too unusual. However, it did mean UPS brought more of their own fleet into Boeing Field including A300-600Fs. These are not normally used on services to Seattle so they were a welcome addition. I don’t know what UPS’s plans are for the fleet but the A300 must be getting towards the later stage of its life. I know that UPS and FedEx have been struggling a little recently so maybe the jets will be used longer than I had anticipated but we shall see.
