Tag Archives: Ballard

I Accidentally Get Another Shot at the Lock Rehabilitation

The big lock at Ballard is undergoing a a renovation program where the gates are all being replaced. It is being done in stages and an earlier stage had me taking a trip across to see what I could see. That was in a previous post and it was a semi-successful visit. I was back at the locks over the Christmas holidays on a lovely sunny day when we took my mum out for lunch. As we walked across the small lock to the big one, I could immediately see that it had been drained.

The crew was working on the middle gates and the base of the lock was totally dry unlike last time. The low sun angle meant there was quite a bit of shade in the lock itself but it was still nicely illuminated. You could also get a good look at the ports along the base of the lock through which the water flows and, because the secondary gates were in place, you could see the large outflow ports downstream of the lower gates.

The depth of the locks is quite impressive. When you think how the water level is when it is full, you realize just how much water is in there and how deep it is if you are in something lightweight like a kayak! When you consider that the locks are over 100 years old, it makes the engineering involved in building them even more impressive. I will miss spending time here watching the boats traverse the locks – particularly on sunny summer days when the amount of traffic means the big lock gets filled up with the scores of pleasure craft. Fun times.

Something Large to Bypass the Pleasure Craft

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When it isn’t peak boating season, the smaller lock at Ballard is the main one to get used. It can accommodate much of the traffic and there isn’t too much demand to require the big lock to be utilized. There are priorities about what traffic goes through the lock and commercial traffic will always get precedence over the leisure craft. There were a few boats lined up to come in when a tug and some barges came in from Puget Sound. It got priority and, since it was far larger than the small lock could deal with, the big lock needed to be used.

Off to Alaska to Go Fishing

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During the summer, the locks at Ballard are heaving with leisure craft. As the days get shorter and colder, some boaters are still out and about, but the traffic through the locks has a more commercial nature. One Sunday we were there and there were a string of fishing boats heading out. Judging by the conversations on the side of the locks, they were heading up to Alaska. Family and friends were alongside saying their goodbyes to the crews before they headed out.

The boats were ready for the voyage north. Each of them had a smaller boat either towed behind or mounted on the aft deck. These were basic aluminum hulls and motors. Nothing superfluous for these crews. The decks also had netting stored awaiting their time in the fishing grounds. The crews were not too busy as they went through the locks, but they clearly had stuff to do. Once out of the locks, they were off to the Sound and ultimately the open ocean. They will be up near Alaska for a few months. I guess the catch is transferred to the processing ships rather than held on board. Hopefully they all stay safe.

Gulls Fight the Sea Lion

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Recent visits to the locks at Ballard have included sightings of some large male sea lions. The seals are a regular feature, but these big boys have not previously been so common. We were watching one of them swim a little further away from us and getting a lot of attention from a flock of gulls. The reason the sea lions are showing up is that salmon must be on the move. The concentration of the fish at the locks makes it a good hunting spot for them.

I had the camera trained on the area that the gulls were swarming around, and the sea lion came up out of the water. The flash of pink in his mouth gave away that he had a salmon which he had caught. I couldn’t see what was happening in real time but going through the images afterwards, I could make out the sequence of events. The sea lion had caught the salmon and then seemed to have bitten off the head. There were bits of fish in the water and that was attracting the gulls. Then the sea lion picked up the body of the fish and flipped it around until it went down his throat in one chunk. No head but everything else with the tail the last to disappear. Maybe the gulls got a few morsels, but the sea lion took the (sea) lion’s share.

The Seals They Be a Frolicking

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On a sunny weekend afternoon at Ballard Locks, we were treated to a lot of seal activity. The salmon were not running so I am not sure why the seals were there in such numbers, but they were. Two in particular, seemed to be having a bunch of fun together. They were playing a lot – occasionally pausing to just cruise around before getting back into their play. Everyone was fascinated and I imagine there was a lot of cell phone footage of them from that day.

Struggling With the Kingfishers

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There are two birds that have a good record of thwarting me when I am trying to get shots of them. The Flicker in one and some recent luck with them will appear on this blog before too long. The other is the kingfisher, and I was hoping that I might have some better luck when Nancy and I headed over to Ballard Locks one Sunday afternoon. There are quite a few kingfishers that live along the water at the locks, and they aren’t so tricky to find because their calls are loud and distinctive and are often a sign that they are flying or about to. They aren’t the stealthiest of birds.

Then again, they don’t need to be too stealthy. They are quick and agile so I imagine that they can do well when it comes to avoiding predators. I don’t know if they have many predators but good luck to them if they do since it would seem to be hard work to get one. Photographing them is hard enough! Getting good shots of them is tricky because they are small and fast. You need a long lens, but you also need to get them in the viewfinder to track them. I was making use of technology to overcome inability. The 200-800 meant I had plenty of reach and the R3 has some amazing focusing capabilities. Basically, I had no excuse because I was the weak link in the chain.

The birds were not totally cooperative, but they did give me a fair chance. Most of the time they would be flying off in the distance, but they would come close sometimes. Then they would trick me. One would take off and fly away and I would be busy track it as another flew right in front of me. I was convinced that they were taunting me. On a few occasions, though, I managed to get a tracking solution on one long enough to get focus and a few shots. The results were surprisingly pleasing. US kingfishers are not as colorful as European kingfishers and they are a bit larger, but the shape is similar, and they do make for an interesting subject. I’ll have to come back on a sunny day sometime to have another go.

Checking Out Seattle from the Air When Coming Home

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A previous post included some aerial photos that I got when coming back into Seattle courtesy of an Alaska Airlines 737. They were of some of the islands in Puget Sound. As we got back to the city, we turned back towards the approach with a nice view of the locks at Ballard and the waterways into Lake Union. A close-up view of the north end of Lake Union with Gasworks Park in the foreground and the university campus in the background came next and then a view of the south side of the city and off towards the east side of Lake Washington before we were back on the ground.

Crow and Gull Combat

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When in the wild, you have two options for food. First, you can find and catch your own. Second, you can find someone else that has already found and caught some food, and you can steal it from them. The latter is way easier than the former, provided you have the ability to relieve the owner of their meal. I was walking alongside the water at the locks in Ballard one weekend and a crow was attempting to help a gull lose weight by taking its meal. What followed was quite some aerial ballet and they twisted and turned with the gull trying to make sure it kept a good hold on its food while maneuvering hard to prevent the crow from taking anything. The gull was ultimately successful in this case.

Kingfisher Fishing Successfully

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When we visited Seattle not long after moving back to the US, I got a shot of a kingfisher as it sat on a cable at the locks in Ballard. I guess this must be a good spot for kingfishers because, when we went down to see the boats, I found another kingfisher hanging out near where we parked. The sound that they make is pretty distinctive and I heard it before I saw it. It was sitting on a branch for quite a while before it dived down, grabbed something out of the water and landed on one of the wooden guides along the water to enjoy its snack. I will have to spend more time down there and see if I can get some better shots of these speedy little critters.

Draining the Locks at Ballard

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The gates on the locks in Ballard are getting old and they are due for replacement. I had seen that they had drained the locks to start this process and went down to have a look. However, they had finished the first phase of work and reopened the locks to traffic, so they were full again. I was pretty disappointed but was told that there were more phases to come so I headed back at the beginning of the second phase. They weren’t fully drained but most of the water was gone. You could see the portals where the water flows when the locks are in use.

There are gates outside the normal gates which can be used to close off the water when the main gates need work done. These were closed off. The main gates are not the initial focus. The intermediate gate is the first one to be replaced and it was already gone when I was there. There will be more chances to check this out so I shall go back at some point.