Category Archives: wildlife

Sun Angle Submerged Shooting

Normally, while you might be able to see things swimming around under the surface in the bay, you wouldn’t really bother getting any photos. The surface reflections are too strong and the detail is not great anyway. However, as the afternoon was wearing on and the sun angle was getting quite low, I was surprised how well it was illuminating things below the surface and, because I was looking slightly down sun, the surface became almost invisible.

A turtle was swimming around, very occasionally putting its head above the water but mainly staying submerged. With the lighting as it was, I was able to get a very clear view of it so decided to take some shots. The water is still taking a little of the detail out but it was far better than I was expecting and the warmer light still picked out some of the color in the turtle.

Robin Versus Worm

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Robins are such a common bird, I guess they don’t get a lot of attention. This one seemed to have found itself a meal with a substantial looking worm. However, it seemed unsure what to do with it. It kept picking the worm up and then dropping it again. Do robins have to eat worms in small pieces or was it just playing with its food? Anyone know the details of their feeding habits?

A Pair of Eagles

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There is a resident pair of bald eagles in Juanita Bay. Originally, I had got some shots of the two of them which were going to be the basis for this post. Since then, I have seen them a bunch of times. They have been flying around together, swooping across the bay and hanging out on the osprey perch to either eat their food or watch for the next meal. I figured I could just share a bunch of photos of them either together or individually. Enjoy…

More Beaver Encounters

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I’ve had a run of good luck with the beavers recently which have resulted in some close up shots of the little critters. It pays to not have the long lens sometimes because they get so close but for the majority of shots it still comes in handy. Here are a couple of the better views I have got of them since last I posted on my beaver exploits.

Kids Love To Play With Sticks

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If you see a kid wandering along the beach of through some woods, what are the chances that they will be wielding a stick that they have picked up? Apparently, this is not limited to humans. A family of ducks was swimming across the bay and one of them had a small twig in its beak. At first I thought it was mistaken in grabbing it or had it stuck but it dropped it and then picked it up again swinging its head around with the stick swiping anything in sight. I guess all kids are similar!

Beaver Damage

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Getting photos of the beavers is a lot of fun. You are aware of what they can do to a tree if they choose and, while it is good for some of the environments when they take down a tree, it can also be disappointing. Consequently, many of the trees have wire mesh around the trunk to protect them. However, while cycling along the Sammammish River, I saw a small tree that one of the beavers had taken down. Since they hadn’t taken it away, I am not sure why they took it down, but they had certainly done a job on it!

Finally Closer Shots Of A Flicker

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We get a ton of flickers in our area. This species of woodpecker is very common and the spring is the time when they love to thrum on the gutters of the houses to mark out their territory. However, I have had a really hard time getting pictures of them. They are very easily spooked. We sometimes get them in the back yard poking around in the grass for food but if they even detect your movement, they are gone.

I recently had one back there and managed to get some shots through the windows of it. Double glazing is not ideal to shoot through but you get what you can. I also saw some in Juanita Bay Park where I was able to shoot through some branches to get a few more distant shots. I have yet to get one flying which is a shame since there is a flash of red from the underside of the wings that I think would look great to capture. I’ll keep trying!

Otter Blowing Bubbles

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While looking at some shots of this otter swimming in Juanita Bay, I noticed it was breathing out through its nose and creating some bubbles in the water ahead of it. It seemed like a silly thing but of course will happen all of the time when they are swimming. However, I like the idea that it is being silly and doing it on purpose so let’s go with that instead.

Are You A Mink?

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I was watching the water in the bay looking for the beaver to come out and feed. I saw something swimming across the surface and at first thought it was a beaver – if only a small one. It didn’t look like it was moving like an otter but it also didn’t seem like a beaver. A while later, I saw some more movement on the water heading for the shore. It looked a little different but I couldn’t say what it was. It then climbed out on to the bank and ran along a log.

I grabbed a few shots and thought it looked a bit like an otter but somehow different. I then lost it again and carried on shooting other subjects. When I got home, I went through the shots and realized I had been looking at two different creatures. The first one will get its own post in due course. The second one had me confused. I started googling images of stoats, ferrets and so on until I got to mink. The pictures of the mink look exactly like the animal in my shot. I think that is what it is. I have never seen a mink in the wild before so this was a pretty cool find for me.

A Little Spider Gets Macro Treatment

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While getting ready one morning, I saw a little spider in my bathroom. It was wandering around on the vanity unit and would stop for periods of time without moving. I figured I might want to give the macro lens a go and went to get the camera. The introduction of the camera was not ideal for encouraging it not to move but I got a bunch of shots. Unfortunately, they were at a pretty high ISO. However, stacking shots can help with the ISO so the result was okay.

A while later, it was back. This time it had climbed up a cable and this reduced the number of ways it could go. This time I decided to tool up and got a clamp to hold the camera and set things up to shoot a proper sequence for stacking. The shutter speeds were low with the clamp which meant ISO could be a lot better. Here are the results of those experiments. (Sorry to people I know that don’t like spiders but, really, this thing is tiny!)