Category Archives: wildlife

Cougar Mountain Zoo

Cougar Mountain Zoo is a small zoo located on the east side of Lake Washington in an area named, wait for it, Cougar Mountain. While it is not a big facility, it does have an interesting variety of creatures in nice habitats and we ended up spending a lot more time there than we thought would be the case. I shall have a variety of creatures to share in some upcoming posts but, given the name of the location and the zoo, it would be churlish to start with any other than the cougars.

They have an enclosure that is one of the first things you come across when you enter. However, they are not always terribly keen on showing off. When we first got there, one of them was lying deep within a small cave and didn’t seem interested in coming out. However, over time they did stretch their legs and come to check things out. Two things really got their attention. One was they knew some feeding was coming soon so they were alert for where the food would ultimately be coming from. The other was some small children that ran around. The cats were eying the kids intently. I assume, if the fencing hadn’t been there, some tasty snacks would have been had by these guys.

Big cats do looks very cool I think. When they are taking it easy, they still look like they are in control and when they get active, you do feel that they could take care of anything that comes their way. The cougar has an intense looking face too. More to come from this place in some upcoming posts.

Goslings En Masse

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Spring is the season for new life. The geese had obviously been taking the task to heart because, as we walked around Bloedel Reserve, there was a large gathering of goslings. It appeared to be that several families were mingling together. I guess strength comes in numbers. The adults were all grazing around the periphery of the group while the multitude of goslings were munching away in the middle.

When we were in Seattle a week later, we came across more goslings. A smaller group this time but the same thing with the adults keeping an eye on them. A couple were getting a bit more adventurous and heading off on their own but they were soon brought back into line. I wonder how many predators geese have. I guess hawks will be happy to take them out but the numbers might explain why there are so many geese wherever you go these days.

Cormorants Lined Up for Inspection

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It’s been too long since we last had a cormorant on the blog. Time to rectify that. These are not action shots. Instead, as we walked along the shoreline on Bainbridge Island, there was a wooden beam out in the water. The cormorants were lined up waiting for me. I think they knew I didn’t have a long lens with me, otherwise they would probably have flown off. Instead, they were hanging out in the sun drying themselves. My choice was to shoot from along the beam or side on. I went with both!

Sea Otter Tenant

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Our visit to the aquarium in Monterey was mainly indoors but we did step out onto the deck area to see what was out there in the rain. I didn’t have a camera with me other than my phone but I did borrow Nancy’s P900 because a Sea Otter had moved in to the pool to take it easy. Someone told us that she was pregnant and liked the shelter the pool afforded. She certainly seemed to be relaxing comfortably while we were there. Maybe Tyson can update us on how she has been doing.

Shovelers Doing Their Thing

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The shoreline of San Francisco Bay has a bunch of ducks. Of the ones I see a lot of, there are two main species. The Mallards are a duck you will see almost anywhere. The others are the Shovelers. As the name suggests, Shovelers like to shovel around in the murk at the bottom of the water to see what they can find. Their bill is shaped to help with rooting around in this mud. The result can be that their heads are no longer the color of the feathers but are, instead, covered in mud.

There is plenty of muddy shallow water along the shore so the ducks will often take off and head to different feeding grounds. It’s fun to try and get them in mid-flight. If things are closer, they will save energy and paddle to their next spot. The best shots are when they come up covered in mud. They look almost surprised by what a mess they are!

Flocking in Some Numbers

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I don’t know whether a murmuration is a thing specific to starlings or whether it applies to any large flocks of birds. I was looking out across San Francisco Bay recently and there was a large flock of birds whirling over the water in the direction of the San Mateo Bridge. It looked just like a murmuration of starlings I had seen once before but I don’t think these were starlings. I have no idea what type of bird they were and what they were up to – hunting or something else – but I was transfixed watching them for a while. A still doesn’t give you much impression of the motion but at least you can see that it was a big flock swirling around.

Egrets

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How about some photos of egrets? They aren’t rare and they all look pretty similar but they are still an interesting looking bird and, since they like to hunt in the shallows, they end up being pretty close and therefore accessible to shoot. I have shot a bunch of them while waiting for something else and, occasionally, specifically because they were there. Here are a few of the more recent shots I have got.

The Raccoon Family Outing

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As a Brit living in the USA, there are certain animals that, when you see them, seem most unusual because you don’t have them on the other side of the pond. Some of these are large creatures which people who grew up here are still fascinated by like bison. Others, though, are not so interesting to the natives. Raccoons seem to fit that bill. They are more of a pest to most people. To me, they are more exotic. As we were walking through Golden Gate Park, we came upon a family of raccoons alongside the trail. They seemed totally uninterested in the people walking by and more bothered about feeding. However, the click of the shutter was obviously enough to get their attention as they all perked up and stopped what they were doing when I took some shots. This didn’t last long, though, and they were quickly back to eating.

Rushing Grebes

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This post doesn’t have any images sadly but I am writing it so you can go online and check something out. Nancy and I took a walk along the shoreline in Hayward. We saw something strange out in the water and, when it happened again, we realized that it was a pair of grebes running across the water. We Googled this and it turns out it is a mating dance that grebes do. They pair up and then start slapping their feet on the water so quickly that they can actually run across the surface in formation. It is called rushing and is quite amazing to watch. I can’t show you anything myself but do look it up. It is crazy stuff.

Nancy Gets the Geckos

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This time the shots I am sharing are not my own. I was there when they were taken but these were taken by Nancy. I was traveling light with one camera and a wide angle lens as we walked along the trails to the falls and Nancy was carrying her camera. It is a Nikon P900 and that thing has a phenomenal zoom range. When I saw the geckos on the leaves of the trees, there was no way I was going to be able to get a shot that showed anything of them given how small they were and the distance to them.

Nancy, on the other hand, had an ideal opportunity to get some shots of them. There were multiple geckos on the plants, some on their own, others together and some others chasing the first ones out of the way. They move very slowly for a while and then burst into action. You do end up with some shots of empty leaves as they spring away just before the shutter is pressed. However, she still got a number of them and their bright coloration really shows up well.