Tag Archives: seattle

Flamingos Fighting and Sleeping

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?)

Easy to Guess Who You Work For

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At was at BFI awaiting the arrival of something and I was checking FlightRadar24 to see what was coming in. I saw a Learjet 60 on the screen south of SeaTac and tapped on it. As soon as I saw the flight path, it was clear who the jet belonged to. The shot below was what I saw and the repeated patterns around SeaTac suggested it was an FAA aircraft undertaking calibration flights for the airport instrumentation.

I stopped thinking about it for a while until I saw a jet appear on the approach to BFI that I hadn’t been aware of. Sure enough, it was the FAA Lear 60. They plonked it down right on the keys and quickly exited to the FBO. I imagine that flying repeated sequences of approaches is not the most exciting way to spend the day so they were glad of the break.

Hiram M Chittenden Locks

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Just north of the center of Seattle is Ballard. Aside from being an interesting area with shops, bars and restaurants, it is also home to a set of locks that connect the salt waters of Puget Sound with Lake Union and Lake Washington’s fresh waters. The locks are the busiest in the US with a steady stream of traffic. On the weekend, this is heavily dominated by pleasure craft but commercial vessels are also a big feature. Indeed, while we were there, we found out that there is a hierarchy of which types of vessel get to go through first, even if some of the owners of the small pleasure craft were not up to speed on the rules!

The locks are named after the man who was instrumental in the early phases of their construction. Aside from leading a big construction project, he also was quite visionary in other areas but that will be the topic of another post soon. There are actually two locks. One is a small lock that suits pleasure craft or small commercial vessels. The other is far broader and longer and can be operated with a middle set of gates if less vessels are coming through. It can also take a lot of smaller boats wedged together like a giant game of Tetris when demand is high such as is the case on warm holiday weekends.

The locks are open to the public along with a small botanic garden. You can cross over the top of the gates (although these are rather narrow and can get congested when people decide to stop and hang around rather than keep moving). There is plenty of space along the sides of the locks to watch the boats as they come in and as they rapidly rise or fall when the water levels are adjusted. We obviously weren’t the only ones to find it a relaxing spot to hang out for a while.

The Red Pandas are Performers

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Visiting the zoo is often a game of hide and seek with the animals. They live according to their normal schedules and are not inclined to be active just because you happen to be there. They also will find a favored location in their enclosure which is not putting them on display to the animals on the other side of the glass. You may catch a glimpse of something sleeping in a shadowy space or you may wonder whether the animal is even in there.

When we got to the red panda enclosure, I was half expecting to not see very much. I figured this would be another reclusive creature. I was wrong. I don’t know whether they are naturally energetic creatures, whether they are curious about their visitors or whether some unseen motivation is given to them to get out there but these guys were the exact opposite of what I had anticipated. They had a number of trees within their space and they were very happy to zip around through the branches. This often brought them right up front to where the visitors were standing. They would happily motor about, stare at the people, head back, disappear for a while before reappearing and repeating the process. Their public was suitably appreciative.

787 Development Jets

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Two versions of the Boeing 787 have been in service for a while. However, development activities continue. The 787-10 is still undergoing flight test but work also continues on the older jets. Some of this is also related to the Dash 10. I had a post on my first encounter with the 787-10 which I wrote about here. I have since come across another of the test aircraft. This one is plain white and doesn’t benefit from the nice house colors that Boeing has.

Meanwhile, one of the 787-8 test aircraft has recently been testing the newest version of the Rolls Royce Trent 1000. I saw this engine when it was being tested on Rolls’ testbed in Tucson and that was in this post. Now it has been fitted to its intended platform and is undergoing trials. These have included lengthy flights around the US including one in which they traced out the planform of the aircraft across multiple states. If you are going to go flying for 18 hours, you might as well find a way to have fun with it. The aircraft is carrying the same logo on the engine nacelle that was on the testbed. Hopefully, the delayed upgraded engine will soon be in service, not just on the Dash 10 but also on the other variants.

Waterfall Park

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I was with a couple of colleagues in downtown Seattle between meetings. We were walking along the street just killing some time when we came upon Waterfall Park. Tucked on the corner of a block in amongst the buildings, it is a little area with a waterfall (what a shock I hear you cry) running down an artificial rock face into a pool. It seems set up to provide a restful spot for workers to enjoy in the middle of the day. Indeed, it closes by mid-afternoon. There was a security guy on duty so maybe someone has tried to mess with it in the past which is rather disappointing. I only had my phone with me but hopefully you can get a feel for the spot.

Gorillas Have a Taste for Flowers

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I knew that gorillas were vegetarians, happy to chomp on branches and leaves for hours at a time. What I didn’t know is that they have what I guess might be considered a sweet tooth. They were scattered throughout their enclosure but two of them were together in one section that had a glass viewing wall for the other apes to watch them. The staff had recently put a load of food out for them and this included some bunches of flowers.

When I first saw the flowers, I was slightly perplexed. It seemed like an odd thing to have put out. However, the alpha male homed in on them. Even then I assumed he would eat the leaves. Not so. He was happy to strip the flowers from the branches and chew them up. The rate at which he went through them made it seem pretty clear that this was a preferred treat for him. Having never tried eating flowers, I have no idea what they taste like. They smell nice so does that translate into a nice flavor? I’m not going to try eating some to find out but, judging by his approach, there must be something to them.

Are You a Dragon or a Monitor?

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Most people have probably heard of Komodo Dragons. However, while checking out this fella at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, I read that they were known as Komodo Monitors for many years until some guy from the US saw one in the 20s and decided to start calling them dragons. Amazingly, it seems it stuck. They certainly don’t fit the traditional image of dragons but they are pretty dangerous if they happen to bite you. At that point, I doubt you will be too bothered about the the distinction and more bothered about your potential impending death.

Floatplanes Coming at You

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Standing in Gas Works Park, you have a view straight down Lake Union. At the other end of Lake Union is one of the bases for Kenmore Air. They operate floatplanes from there on a regular series of services as well as some sightseeing trips. We got there just as a bunch of planes took off in close succession and I was a bit annoyed to miss out the chance to get some shots of them. However, they are a busy company so we knew we would get some more flight before too long.

They start their takeoff run at the other end of the lake so they get airborne long before they reached us. With so much clutter in the background and a lot of ambient noise, you didn’t always immediately pick out that a departure was coming your way. Once they got airborne and a lot closer, they were easier to identify. They would turn before they reached us and head off en route. I could probably have spent a lot of time there watching the flights but Nancy is not quite so keen so we lingered a short while and then moved on.

Warthogs – Not the Flying Version

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Given that this blog has a lot of aviation content, some people will get excited when they see the word Warthog. Sorry guys, this is not an A-10 post. I may have to put one together now though since I want to see some A-10s on here too. This is a warthog of the animal variety instead. There were a couple of warthogs we saw at Woodland Park Zoo. Initially they were rummaging around under cover and not in a good spot for a photo. However, a little patience paid off and soon they moved out into the open. Then we got a good look at them and the chance to really see their faces. They may not be everyone’s favorite but I find them a great looking creature and certainly something you want to treat with some respect!