I posted a photo of a cormorant sitting on a post in Lake Washington in this post. More recently, the same post became the resting place for a heron. I had plenty of time to inch closer to get a better shot of the bird. The background was rather distracting so I ended up crouching in an strange position in order to get a cleaner background. The heron seemed content to wait for me to get the shot.
I posted a shot of a boat that was partially submerged in Renton in this post. I came across a similar sight in Kenmore recently. This boat was tied up to the outside of the marina but was clearly in a bad way. I don’t know what happened but I am going to make a guess. The water level in the lake is very high at the moment. There are many wooden piles out in the water that are normally above the surface but they are currently all submerged. I wonder whether the boat’s owner did not know they were there and punched a hole in the hull?
My sunbathing cormorant got his own post here as a result of being easy to photograph in the evening light. There were plenty of other cormorants around that evening but the rest were around the piles out in the water in into the sun. That did make for some nice silhouette shots instead so here they are. You won’t be able to identify individual cormorants, though.
I had finished up a shoot and was driving back towards home but decided to divert to Kenmore. The evening light was looking good and I thought some floatplanes might be returning to base. By the time I got to Kenmore, it must have too late as I didn’t see any planes. However, there was a cormorant sitting on one of the posts near the end of the jetty. As the sun set, he was stretching out his wings to gather maximum warmth. How could I resist yet another cormorant shot?
No long explanation here. I was down at Lake Washington and the sun was going down so I took this shot with my phone. Just seemed pretty…
I had stopped off by Lake Washington to get some late afternoon photos and, as I walked back up to the parking lot, a couple of rabbits were snacking along the path. Since the camera was still out, I figured I would get some quick shots. Unfortunately, a family was following me up the trail and the kids spotted the rabbits. Being young kids, their instinct was to run to the rabbits – it won’t surprise you to know that the rabbits did not hang around to see if their intentions were good. I did get a couple of shots before they had vanished.
Clouds are not a rarity in the Seattle area but we do actually have lots of nice weather in the summer. You will still get plenty of clouds though and these can be nice to see with the arriving jets. A FedEx MD-11 was turning on to its approach over Kenmore when I was down at the lake and I looked up to see it popping in and out of the clouds above. It was pulling a little vapor of its own but the way it seemed to be peeping through the clouds caught my eye so I grabbed a few shots.
The ospreys on Lake Washington have got some attention on the blog recently. However, they are not alone. Some bald eagles have also been showing up. They aren’t around in such large numbers and I didn’t see so much fishing activity close by but they were out there having a hunt for some food and sometimes came closer in allowing a shot or three. They are an impressive looking bird.
Sitting out by Lake Washington watching the boat and floatplane traffic also provided a view of the local residents fishing. These residents aren’t the humans on the pier with fishing poles. These are the ospreys. There are lots of ospreys that are around the north end of the lake at this time of year. They are circling overhead looking for targets and then swooping down to catch them.
It is not usual to get them making their catch close in but sometimes you can see them diving in the grab a fish. However, when they catch something, they do head back passed the shore as they make their way to their nests. A fish tucked under their body and held in a forward alignment to make it easier to fly with is not a rare sight. You also can get them circling overhead as they look for some food but I guess nothing too tasty was near me.
Here are a few of the houses that along the north end of Lake Washington as seen from the pier at Kenmore. Sure, they look like nice houses and they look out over the lake but I’m sure the noise of all of the people having fun out on the lake would make these unattractive places to live. They also have floatplane traffic coming and going from Kenmore. I can’t imagine anyone who would want that.
