Tag Archives: washington

Heron In Flight

Much of my heron photo collection is of them hunting for their lunch as they stand at the water’s edge. However, I do occasionally get photos of them in flight. Now I like most things that fly but I do think that the heron is not the most elegant bird when it is flying. The long outstretched neck works for a swan or a goose but, for a heron, it seems rather out of balance. With the large wings, it is an efficient flyer but it doesn’t have the look of a bird that is having an easy time of it. This one was heading across Juanita Bay and over the the shore where another heron had been hanging out and, as is the way of wildlife, it was determined to drive the other bird away whether it needed to or not!

Henry Island Transporting A Tanker

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I have had some previous posts about San Juan Ferry and Barge as we saw a lot of them while vacationing in the San Juans. On our trip to Friday Harbor while mum was visiting, I hadn’t figured on seeing them unless they were moored in the harbor. However, as our ferry was getting ready to depart Anacortes, the Henry Island, one of their two boats, came towards us from the main harbor at Anacortes.

It passed behind us but I figured that we would catch it up as we headed to Friday Harbor and that proved to be the case. It was transporting a tanker truck with a trailer so the deck of the boat was full. As we chased it down, a couple of kayakers were coming the opposite direction. I wonder which of our two vessels they were more interested in.

Southwest Max7s Are on The Move

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The monumental screw up that was the 737 Max program has been getting back on track with the return to service of the 737-8 and 737-9 along with the new deliveries coming off the line. The 737-7 has been in flight test for a while now but its certification was going to be delayed until the main fleet issues had been resolved. Reports now suggest that it will be certificated in plenty of time before the year end deadline that Congress set for cockpit upgrade requirements.

A few Southwest 737-7s (Southwest is the significant customer for this marque) have been parked up at Renton for a while. These had been painted and then stored. However, a couple of 737-7s made flights to Boeing Field in recent times. These are Southwest jets but they have yet to be painted. The fact that they are on the move might be interpreted as suggesting that certification may not be too far away and that Southwest may soon be taking delivery. During the downturn that resulted from the pandemic, Southwest increased its -7 orders at the expense of the -8s. Now traffic is booming, I wonder whether Southwest will reverse that reversal and switch more orders to the -8.

Hummingbirds On Real Plants

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I have taken a ton of photos of the hummingbirds that come to our feeders in the back yard. However, a cooler shot is one that involves real plants rather than a metal feeder. We have hanging baskets which have sometimes provided food for the little critters but the majority of the flowers in our baskets this year do not seem to have interested them. Only one of the flowers seems to get some of them to feed and it is a narrow trumpet shaped flower that seems to thrive on the far side of the basket away from me and the light.

Of course, the sun does move so, with a little patience and forethought, it is possible to get in position and try to stay very still so as not to scare away the blighters. I have had some backlit results but they aren’t very appealing photos. They are better than nothing but getting on the right side of things is the goal and one I have finally managed to achieve. If I could get better angles, that would improve things but there are a good start. Now to spend more time waiting for them and try to avoid freaking out the neighbors in the meantime.

Challenger 604 That Boeing Has Used For Other Things?

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This Challenger 604 taxied out at Boeing Field and I was slightly curious because it was in a grey paint job with a US flag on the fin. I didn’t think it was a government owned machine but maybe there was something interesting about it. When I got a good look at it, I could see that the airframe had some modifications. There were ventral fins and a fairing on the underside that looked like it might have been used for mounting something else which was now absent. A check on the registration shows it as registered to Boeing. They had a development program a while back to make a maritime patrol aircraft from the Challenger. Was this airframe part of that program originally? Where is it going now?

Diablo Dam

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The dams along the Skagit River coming down from the Cascades are all pretty interesting but Diablo Dam is the easiest one to access so, when mum was visiting, we made the side trip to go across it. I actually missed the turning for it when we were heading into the mountains but I made sure to remember where it was when we headed back down. Driving across the top of the dam is pretty cool but it is a little narrow if you meet traffic coming the other way. There was a good flow of water coming through one of the spillways while we were there and that looks impressive compared to when everything is calm.

The Sheriff Buzzes Juanita Bay

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I was down in Juanita Bay with mum during her visit when the sound of a helicopter came towards us. I managed to switch a few of the settings to get things mostly write although not the exposure. However, RAW is quite forgiving these days. It was the King County Sheriff’s JetRanger that was making a tour of Juanita Bay for some reason. They were pretty low as they buzzed by and then circled around to the north side of the bay and disappeared. Not sure why they came that way – maybe they know someone there?

Dragonflies

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When I lived in the UK, I don’t remember seeing dragonflies at all. They may well have been there but I didn’t notice them. Moving to the US, there were dragonflies all of the place and I was immediately fascinated by them. Of course, over time, I got used to them being everywhere so stopped paying attention. However, when I have visitors from the UK, they are taken with them in the same way I originally was.

When mum was here, we went down to Juanita Bay to have a look around. It was a lot hotter than it had been on any of my previous visits and it was also popular with bugs. I got bitten a few times which has never happened there before. I guess the bugs meant the dragonflies were happy and we saw plenty of them. Here are a few shots I got of them when they landed. I have yet to get anything useful of them while flying. They are quite tricky to track!

Old School Power Provision

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Roche Harbor on San Juan Island is now a resort town with a marina, hotel, restaurants and accommodation. However, it started out as a production facility for lime. Some of the original elements of the town have been preserved and one part is the old power production site. The original generator set was supplemented by a second as demands increased for power. The images of them belching smoke as they worked didn’t make it look like a fun place to be back in those days. Now, they are inactive and cleaned and painted but they are a reminder of how things used to be done.

Dark Gulfstream Day

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I do like shooting bizjets and they can provide a bit of variety amongst the regularity of the other aircraft around. However, there is one thing that can disappoint and that is the unimaginative way in which they are usually painted. Airlines have adopted the variations on white but the bizjets have been doing this for ages. Consequently, when one shows up that is not basically white, I am really pleased.

Black painted bizjets look so much more interesting. The engineer in my finds myself wondering how well they keep cool out in the sun on the ramp but, since I am not the customer, not a problem I need to worry about too much. Instead, I can just be pleased to shoot a jet that looks a little out of the ordinary.