Tag Archives: washington

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

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I have seen many photographs of incredible waves breaking against the shore at Cape Disappointment at the far southwest corner of the state of Washington.  While the storms that can lead to such waves are most likely in the winter months, I decided I wanted to do a recce trip to the Cape to get a feel for the area and see whether I wanted to go back when the weather is more rough.  It is a three and a half hour drive to get there from home so an early start was in order.

The area has much to offer so there will be other posts to come about this visit but today I shall focus on the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse itself.  It sits on a headland on the outlet from the Columbia River and it is this headland that is the backdrop for the most dramatic photos.  There is another lighthouse nearby but more of that on another day.  Looking from the beach up to the lighthouse on a calm day, it is hard to image how violent the waves can really get.

The lighthouse was off limits while I was there – presumably as a result of the pandemic.  However, you could go to the visitors center which was a lot closer to it so you could have a different perspective on the light itself.  While it was early in the day when I first got there, I hung around until mid afternoon before leaving for the drive home and the light had come around a bit by then.  Sunset would be very nice but that was not the plan for this visit.  I hope to go back, though.

777X Over the Top

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Having shot the 777X test aircraft a bunch of times, I was looking for something a little different.  I figured I could head out to the north end of Boeing Field and be under the jet as it was on short final.  I shot something similar at LAX a number of years ago and liked the results so decided to have a go.  This was not as simple as I had hoped for.  First, the plane is out of sight for most of the approach with buildings and power lines in the way.

Second, I didn’t have lots of big jets to pay with.  It was my first opportunity so I didn’t have time to get the hang of it.  As it was, I didn’t do as good a job as I would have liked.  I was shooting with a wide lens and tracking the airframe to fill the frame was trickier than expected.  In the early shots, it was too far to one side of the frame and I ended up with the nose closer to the middle than ideal with the result that many shots lack a back end of the airframe.  I will try it again with these issues in mind and I shall skip the long lens shots first.  Making a quick switch meant I was not as well prepared as I could have been.  I did grab a shot through the fence of the jet heading for touchdown with Mt Rainier in the background too.

How To Spook Geese

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I was riding along the Sammammish River Trail back in to Woodinville one weekend when the noise of geese suddenly filled the air.  On the other side of the river from the trail are fields which often are filled with geese feeding.  A large flock was gathered there on this day but their grazing had been interrupted by the arrival of a bald eagle.  It flew across the area and barely changed course as it did so but it certainly startled the geese and they all took to the air.

They flew around in circles for a while waiting for the eagle to get safely out of the area.  Then they gradually calmed down and more and more of them settled back in to the fields to resume eating.  However, this was a slow process as they had clearly been spooked and weren’t going to relax easily.  This was all starting as I cycled up but I did manage to pull my phone out and get a bit of video of this happening so here is the brief burst of excitement before things settled down again.

Anacortes Castle

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Driving through the back roads in Anacortes, I came across Anacortes Castle.  I think it is actually just a house but it is certainly one that has been styled to look like a castle.  You probably couldn’t defend it from marauders very easily and the turret seemed to have a lot of open space inside but it is still an interesting looking building.  It sits on a normal residential street so is quite out of keeping with the rest of the houses.  Still, it is a talking point, I am sure!

Blue Air Max

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I had not heard of Blue Air prior to seeing this Max on test.  It is a nice thing about living near Boeing’s production facilities that you see jets that will be heading somewhere you don’t go.  In this case, I read not long afterwards that this jet was the first delivery of a Max to Blue Air and that they are a low cost carrier in Romania.  I guess I now know about another airline that I previously was unaware of.  Looked quite nice in these colors (when you consider how bland airline colors can be there days).

McNeil Island – Not For Us

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Just as I arrived at Steilacoom, a small passenger ferry boat was heading in to the docks.  I had no idea what it was for at the time.  While I was waiting around, I looked across and saw a large building on the island across from where I was standing.  Wandering down to the docks, there was a sign for the McNeil Island Commitment Center.  I had no idea what this was but figured I could look it up later.

Turns out this island used to be a prison.  For a long time, it was a federal prison.  The feds then turned it over to the state which continued to operate it as a prison for a while longer before its high cost of operations meant they closed it down.  However, the state has maintained a facility for offenders that are considered to remain a risk to the community after their sentence is complete and this is the Commitment Center.  Only people visiting or associated with this place have a need to go to the island so I guess it is not somewhere I shall be visiting – at least I hope not!

Jet Ranger X (Experimental)

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The Bell 206 JetRanger was an immensely successful single turbine helicopter and was ubiquitous for decades.  However, the type was dated and more modern helicopters had come along and taken market share.  Bell needed to come up with a solution and that was the Bell 505 which has since become branded as the Jet Ranger X.  The project was not as smooth as intended but it has now entered more widespread service.

That didn’t mean I had actually seen one, though, until recently when I got to photograph one at Boeing Field.  At this point, trouble has reached the program again with fatigue failures in the controls for the right seat meaning you aren’t supposed to fly one solo from that seat until a redesigned control is fitted.  This will get addressed, of course, but it is another issue for the type.  The example I saw was marked as Experimental so I wonder what purpose it was being used for.  According to the FAA, it is registered to Bell but what it is doing is anybody’s guess.  Putting aside its technical issues, my biggest problem with the 505 is that I think it doesn’t look very good.  It reminds me of a tadpole and seems to have a slight feel of a toy design compared to the other types in this class (or the original JetRanger).  That is not going to make or break it of course – just a personal observation.

Watching You Watching Me

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When out looking for wildlife, it pays to keep your head swiveling.  There are the things you are expecting to see but also the odd one you weren’t.  It was close to high tide as I walked far out on the boardwalk at Nisqually but the tide had turned and the water was starting to flow out.  As I glanced across, I saw three shapes in the water.  Some seals were drifting out with the tide.  Two of them were swimming along but one had stopped close to me and was staring directly at me.  Consequently, he got photographed.  We stared at each other for about a minute and then he disappeared under the surface and I didn’t see him again.  The other two were long gone so I assume he was chasing to catch up with them.

Murrelets Feeding On the Dock

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When walking along the shore at Mukilteo, I will often see one or two Murrelets diving for food in the shallows along the edge of Puget Sound.  They are not rare but nor are they particularly abundant.  Consequently, I was rather surprised when at the new ferry terminal to see a large number of them swimming in the water around the new pier structures.  There was a constant stream of them diving down and surfacing again.

I can only assume that something is growing on the surface of the steel posts that support the new loading spans.  The birds would swim up to the posts, dive straight down for a while – presumably as they grabbed the food – and then surface at an oblique angle.  The result was a cycle of birds going down and back up again.  It looked really strange and seemed like something that would stop but there must be plenty to eat as they just kept going.  I figured video was the best way to show what was happening so below is a short clip of them feeding away!