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Italian Day At Exotics Again

The schedule for Exotics@RTC has been erratic this year. They have had to scrub a bunch of events as a result of the poor weather. However, with summer finally arriving in the Pacific Northwest, they have had a run of successful gatherings. One of these was their Italian Day. I have been to this before and it is always a fun event with a lot of interesting vehicles. It was going to worth going again.

The center of the venue was packed as usual. Plenty of Ferraris and Lamborghinis to look at. Not as much variety in the Ferraris as in some previous events but still a lot of good looking cars. These are nice to see but it is perhaps more fun to spot the oddities that show up. I was interested in how many Alfa Romeo Spiders were in attendance and just have different they could be. I guess the Spider stayed in production for a long time and the design evolved a lot over that time. Annoyingly, I didn’t seem to get any good shots of them. There were plenty of other Alfas, though as well as some older Ferraris. These shots are a sample of what was on display.

The First Korean P-8

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The US Navy continues to take deliveries of the P-8 Poseidon jets but they are getting close to the end of their production run. Meanwhile, export customers continue to be receiving their jets. The latest customer to have an aircraft show up on the flight line is the Republic of Korea’s navy. Their first jet flew from Renton to Boeing Field a while back and then went in to the fit out process for a while. It is now out on the flight line and undergoing test.

I have managed to get a few shots of it so far. It is marked up quite colorfully so it looks better than the average jet coming off the line. We shall see how long it stays around here before it gets delivered to Korea. There will be others following it down the line too. New Zealand is the next customer to get its first jet so we shall see how long it is before that jet makes to move to BFI and then is fitted out.

Fields Of Lavender

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Nothing like making a mistake and having it work out better than your original plan. We were driving across San Juan Island after visiting Roche Harbor heading to Lime Kiln State Park. We had been discussing the lavender festival taking place at Sequim during the day but it was not close enough that we were seriously considering a visit. I thought I knew the route to the park but I managed to miss the turning and, after going for a while, realized the mistake.

I put the destination in to the GPS and it told me that my turning was coming up. As we headed back in the right direction, we came around a corner to see a purple field in front of us. A rapid turn off and we checked out this lavender farm. It was not on a road we would otherwise have used that day so we really were lucky to see it.

They have two main types of lavender that they farm but there was a pick your own field in which there were dozens of varieties. I had never thought about different types of lavender before visiting this place! There were pathways throughout the fields so it was easy to wander through looking at the patterns that the plants made as they were grown. Too close and you could see too much of the orderliness and the raised beds and irrigation system. However, stay back a little and it all blended together nicely.

Baby Catfish En Masse

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I am no specialist on fish (or any other wildlife for that matter) so, if I have got this wrong, please feel free to correct me in the comments. I was down at Juanita Bay seeing what wildlife was out an about. I was on one of the boardwalks and looking in to the water to see if there was anything in there. I saw a black mass seeming to pulse and move. I was confused as to what it might be but the long lens gave me a clearer view of things. It was a massive amount of baby fish.

My previous disclaimer comes in to effect here. I think they were catfish based on the shape of the mouth and the barbs but that could be totally wrong. Let’s assume for now that they were. There was hundreds of them, if not thousands. They were moving around furiously but staying closely packed together for safety. The group would gradually move around and migrate through the plant life. Occasionally, a group would split off into a second section and then later they would somehow find each other again and regroup. They looked almost alien as they swirled and moved. I did take stills, as you can clearly see, but video seemed like the better way to convey the impression that they left.

Muskrat – I Think

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I had to do some research when I got home to make sure I knew what this was. I saw the head in the water as it swam around but it was at a similar time to when I saw a mink. Consequently, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at when. A little use of Google later and I was able to confirm that this was indeed a muskrat. They look very small when swimming since they are almost completely submerged. Once out of the water, they look a lot more substantial, and that tail is very distinctive.

He climbed out on to a branch that was floating in the water. It looked like someone else had previously been on the branch judging by the droppings that were there, and these didn’t seem to bother him much. Maybe they were his from a previous visit. A quick trip along the branch and back and then it was back into the water. Another time I saw one, the same routine of walking along the branch and back was repeated so maybe it was the same one?

Eagle Stealing A Snack

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The eagles that live around Juanita Bay are busy hunters. However, hunting requires a load of effort and it is surely easier to steal someone else’s meal. An otter had caught a fish and climbed on to one of the buoys that mark the protected area of the bay to eat it. As it got close to finishing, one of the eagles swooped in and grabbed the remainder of what it had. The otter didn’t seem too bothered so maybe it had eaten the best of the meal and was okay to let the eagle take it without a fight. The eagle went to the osprey perch and then ate whatever was left.

Leaping Fish

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If you stand by Juanita Bay for a few minutes, you will see fish leaping out of the water periodically. The carp are spawning and they leap out all the time. Getting a shot of a leaping fish seems like it would be almost impossible since you couldn’t know where they would be leaping next and getting lined up would not be possible in the tiny instant that they are out of the water even if you did see them immediately. However, there is some hope.

For some reason, the fish will often leap twice in roughly the same place. However, they only seem to do it when you are not training your camera on the spot where they last came out. I will watch with the camera down and see them jump again and again. Bring the camera up and they don’t play ball – normally. However, I did get lucky on one occasion. I got a second leap as I pointed the camera at the location of the previous ripples.

I had an even better chance on a later date. I was staring down into the water and could see the shape of a carp as it swam just below the surface. I didn’t know whether it would be possible to get a clear shot of it in the water but started tracking it anyway. Then it turned and came out of the water right below me. I couldn’t have been better placed to get the shot. I’ll take a good dose of luck any time.

Sun Angle Submerged Shooting

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Normally, while you might be able to see things swimming around under the surface in the bay, you wouldn’t really bother getting any photos. The surface reflections are too strong and the detail is not great anyway. However, as the afternoon was wearing on and the sun angle was getting quite low, I was surprised how well it was illuminating things below the surface and, because I was looking slightly down sun, the surface became almost invisible.

A turtle was swimming around, very occasionally putting its head above the water but mainly staying submerged. With the lighting as it was, I was able to get a very clear view of it so decided to take some shots. The water is still taking a little of the detail out but it was far better than I was expecting and the warmer light still picked out some of the color in the turtle.

Robin Versus Worm

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Robins are such a common bird, I guess they don’t get a lot of attention. This one seemed to have found itself a meal with a substantial looking worm. However, it seemed unsure what to do with it. It kept picking the worm up and then dropping it again. Do robins have to eat worms in small pieces or was it just playing with its food? Anyone know the details of their feeding habits?

A Pair of Eagles

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There is a resident pair of bald eagles in Juanita Bay. Originally, I had got some shots of the two of them which were going to be the basis for this post. Since then, I have seen them a bunch of times. They have been flying around together, swooping across the bay and hanging out on the osprey perch to either eat their food or watch for the next meal. I figured I could just share a bunch of photos of them either together or individually. Enjoy…