Category Archives: wildlife

Juanita’s Resident Eagles

The presence of the eagles on Juanita Bay was something I have seen before but I had not been out with the camera before to catch them. I saw one eagle hunting out on the water as I moved towards the bay and this startled the wildfowl as I mentioned in a previous post. The eagle involved then flew back to one of the trees on the shore and perched there for quite a while. I got to one of the boardwalks in the park where I could sit it waiting, a little far away and almost directly in the sun. Time to wait.

I hung around for quite a while hoping this eagle would make a move. It seemed to have more patience than me. Meanwhile, I was looking around to see whether anything else was on the move – the swans perhaps. Then my eye caught some movement coming across the bay towards me out of the background of the hills opposite. I suddenly realized that it was another eagle. It was already climbing as I realized and I tried hard to get the camera up towards it despite having the monopod attached. I got a focus on it just as it reached the tree branch it was aiming for. A great flare of wings and then it was perched, almost directly above me.

I got a bunch more shots of it as it found a comfortable position on the perch and there is remained. I was getting pretty cold and the light was fading so I decided to head back around the park. The last I saw it was still up there.

Who Scared You Guys?

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I was walking along the edge of the lake in Juanita carrying the camera. Juanita Bay is popular with bird life and I saw a lot of the wildfowl suddenly burst into life and start flying towards me. I pulled the camera up and started shooting. I wasn’t sure what was going on but figured I could try and work that out later. Meanwhile there were a lot of birds coming at me.

It was soon clear what was occurring. There is a pair of bald eagles that frequent the bay and one of them was soaring across the bay. It pulled up and landed on a pole out in the water and very close to the birds. This obviously spooked them and they all bolted for the shore and, perhaps, safety. The eagle didn’t seem to bothered about them to be honest but they are not averse to a change in diet once in a while so I understand why there was such a reaction.

Ducks Take a Bath After a Busy Day

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Walking back in to Log Boom Park from the pier, you get to the shoreline which is a popular spot for the ducks. They clearly like the shallow water and the multiple spots where they can come out of the water to rest. As I was approaching, they seemed to be in agreement that it was bath time. Every duck was taking a turn at washing their plumage.

I figured I would take a chance on the shots. Slow shutter speeds were worth a go. The problem with this is that the ducks are moving a lot so the chances of getting a sharp head/eye are a bit limited. However, if that does work out, the flapping of the wings should look more interesting than trying to freeze the action. Making use of the high shutter rate on the camera is a good way of improving the likelihood of some success and, I was okay with getting a few that worked out.

Inquisitive Sealion at the Beach

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The shores of Puget Sound provide plenty of places to explore. One of these was a beach in Shoreline, a town that is quite appropriately named. I was actually about to head back to the car when this event occurred. As I walked up the path I saw people coming in the opposite direction. I thought they had a dog with them and that it was swimming in the water alongside them. Then I realized that the head in the water was not a dog but instead was a sealion.

The sealion was very close in to the shore and seemed to be quite interested in what was going on. I turned back around and headed to the water as it came closer. There were some old wood pilings in the water and the sealion came in to those, almost as if they provided a measure of protection. Then it paused before turning around and swimming back in the other direction. Shortly thereafter, it dipped under the surface and swam away. By this point, a few people had stopped to watch its progress. A sealion is hardly a rarity but it is interesting just how much attention it garners all the same.

It’s a Cluster of Cormorants!

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This was an evening that I was out hunting planes. I did have some success, but I got a lot more shots of birds than planes. The cormorants were out in numbers and they obviously know I like them. Log Boom Park in Kenmore has a concrete pier that goes well out into the lake. At the end of the pier are pilings from a previous version of the pier. They provide a nice spot for birds to rest and the cormorants had taken over the place.

The light was not in a good place for getting a photo but it was still worthy of a shot or two. Some of the cormorants were stretching their wings to dry out. They have a prehistoric look about them at the best of times but when they stretch the wings out, they really do look like a pterodactyl. The concentrated group of cormorants were in a bad spot for the light but, fortunately, one of them was feeling antisocial and was on a different post. The light was a lot better for this guy!

Cormorant at Low Shutter Speed

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An impromptu shot of a cormorant is a good thing as far as I am concerned. Normally when I photograph birds, I am shooting wide open at as high a shutter speed as possible. However, this time I was set up for shooting at a lower shutter speed when the cormorant came by. Consequently, the success rate was down a bit. I did still get some shots though and the motion blur gives more of a feel of speed, even if it is just the water blurring out.

Failing to Catch a Leaping Salmon

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As the locks at Ballard transfer the water, they manage to catch a lot of salmon at the same time. It was very common while we were there to see the salmon leap out of the water. Some would leap out and crash back into the water on their sides while others would leap upright and nose back in to the water like a dolphin. Catching this on the camera was a touch trickier. I have a lot of shots of splashes as the salmon has just reentered the water. I did get some on video though so you know I am not totally making this up!

The Fish Ladder

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Hiram M Chittenden was not only the man in charge of creating the Ballard Locks, he also was ahead of his time in understanding some of the ecological impact of what he was doing. The importance of the fish to the region and the disruption that the salmon would experience led him to the creation of a fish ladder. There is still one there now although it appears to be of slightly more modern construction.

There are ramps alongside parts of the ladder so you can look down and see the fish as they work their way up the steps. You can also look down and see a lot of them swimming around in the approach to the ladder itself. Meanwhile, there is a viewing gallery that has windows into the side of part of the ladder where you can watch the fish either resting in the quieter flows or forcing their way up to the next level. There were signs telling us which types of fish there might be but I have to admit they all looked alike to me.

Butterflies Everywhere!

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We took a wander through the butterfly enclosure at Woodland Park Zoo. These enclosures require a fair bit of care on the part of the visitor. They briefed you as you went in what to watch for. Double doors are at the entrance and exit to stop the butterflies escaping (or at least keep them in the entrance hall if they do manage to sneak out). You must watch carefully for them. They will land on you and your stuff but they will often be resting on the ground. Treading on one will not be considered cool!

I will state right now that I didn’t make much effort to photograph a butterfly in flight. They are rather fast movers as you quickly discover if you try to photograph them while airborne. I have tried this before and I wasn’t going to frustrate myself again. Instead I settled for a few shots of the stationary versions. I assure you that they were real and alive – this was not a staged creation for me.

Flamingos Fighting and Sleeping

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Wildlife is an attractive subject for photography, particularly when the creature in question is colorful. A flamingo certainly fits the bill with the vibrant pink coloring. In addition, given that they have such long necks and shapely heads, they can curl themselves up in ways that make for an interesting image. The Woodland Park Zoo had a bunch of flamingos (a prize for the person that tells me the collective noun for flamingos without having to Google it).

Most of the birds were just hanging around, wandering about the enclosure and eating/drinking. A few of them were asleep and a couple seemed to be pretty aggravated with each other. These guys were chasing around the place and generally getting worked up which seemed to be nothing more than an inconvenience to the other birds. The ones trying to sleep seemed particularly unimpressed by the disturbance.

The way in which a flamingo will sleep makes for a cool shot. Aside from the single leg pose (apparently easy even while unconscious), they curl their necks around and rest their heads on the back of their bodies, apparently facing backwards. The curve of the neck and the way in which the head sits in their back feathers is a great shape and zooming right in to get a tight shot of this seemed to make a lot of sense. (Besides, when you are carrying a long lens all day, shooting with it must be the right thing to do huh?)