ingrid

If You Build It, the Eagles Will Come

March 6, 2012 Birds

We barely saw this sub-adult Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), hunkered down and camouflaged, in a tree above the trail at Union Bay Natural Area. I shot a few frames right before the sun fell below Husky Stadium to the south. At full extension, the eagle was still quite small in the frame, and the aggressive [...]

Parrots Directing Traffic

March 4, 2012 Bay Area

As my life in California drifts farther behind me, I’m given to fits of sentimentality … especially for the wildlife and wilderness we left behind. Among my emotional favorites are the wild parrots of San Francisco — actually, Red-masked Parakeets or Cherry-headed Conures. These are the celebrity birds featured in Mark Bittner’s The Wild Parrots [...]

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Crow Casting a Pellet [Almost]

March 2, 2012 Animal Behavior

Sometimes, if there are no birds or wild animals in the vicinity (which is often the case in the heavily-populated parks near my Seattle home) I’ll just sit and take in the scenery …. with camera ready in case something unexpected happens. In Seattle, I can almost always count on crows showing up, even if [...]

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The Origins of Avian Blue

February 29, 2012 Birds

I pulled a few of my Western Bluebird pics from the archives to illustrate the following excerpt. This month’s Smithsonian Magazine has a short piece entitled Why So Blue? by Helen Fields, which explores the natural magic behind bluebird blue: [Ornithologist Richard Prum] discovered that as a blue feather grows, something amazing happens. Inside each [...]

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On Double-Banded Knee

February 28, 2012 Animal Behavior

Seattle crows are among the most famous of modern crows, owing to studies by John Marzluff which are featured in A Murder of Crows. This PBS Nature episode looks at Marzluff’s University of Washington (UW) research projects and the crows’ ability to recognize and remember human faces. I’ve seen a few UW-banded crows around town, [...]

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Was it Something I Said?

February 25, 2012 Birds

Spencer Island, Washington — described by Audubon Washington this way: “A cornucopia of species! Come year-round for Bald Eagles, Great Horned Owls, Northern Harriers, Belted Kingfishers – and woodpeckers: Pileated, Downy, and Hairy, plus Northern Flickers and Red-breasted Sapsuckers. Spring-summer find Tree and Violet-green Swallows, plus Ospreys, Wood Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, [...]

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These Are Not Leaves

February 23, 2012 Birds

My loose homage to Rene Magritte. They were so quiet, fluttering in the wind just like the leaves. Not even the softest Starling whistle came from that tree. When you’ve birded or photographed enough, or sometimes even just a bit, it’s wonderful how the slightest anomaly then draws the eye. This was more than slight, [...]

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When the Crane Calls

February 21, 2012 Birds

Sandhill Cranes have distinctive calls you recognize immediately, once you know them. They rattle, and croak and reverberate through the estuary. The first time you hear that sound, you’ll expect something magnificent, prehistoric, indefinable. And that’s precisely what you’ll encounter. Cranes have ancestry reaching into the Miocene Epoch, 24 to 5 million years ago. They [...]

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A Blog Name Change … Have You Done It?

February 20, 2012 Photography

When people mention my blog in other blogs, the most common addendum is — don’t worry — it’s not about particle accelerators. That always makes me laugh, but I realize there’s nothing in my blog name to suggest what it really is. And, I know that’s violating one of the basic tenets of a “good” [...]

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Snowy Owls, Boundary Bay & Rethinking My Own Motivations

February 18, 2012 Birds

Snow Owls on driftwood, shot from the dike trail at Boundary Bay – ©ingridtaylar – Click for Larger Image My only intent in visiting Boundary Bay was to get a glimpse of Snowy Owls. I’ve never seen them in the wild, and although I brought my camera, I didn’t expect to be close enough to [...]

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First … Signs of Snowies

February 16, 2012 Birds

Boundary Bay, British Columbia Edited to add (2/17/12): Since I posted this, I’ve had discussions with a few photographers who disagree with my stance on this owl/space/ethics issue. They’ve told me it’s acceptable for photographers to be out in the marshes, as long as they don’t flush the owls. I wanted to find out what [...]

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Low Tide Life

February 15, 2012 Birds

“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.” ~ John Muir

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Enter … the ‘ood Duck

February 9, 2012 Birds

One experience can change a word forever. This experience took place in Venice years ago, on a guided tour of the Doge’s Palace. Our lovely guide, who couldn’t have been more enthused about his subject matter, simply could not pronounce the letter “W.” So, we took note of the palace’s ‘ooden beams, the historic ‘ooden [...]

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Wildlife Photography Ethics Matter

February 8, 2012 Birds

Edited to Add (2/12/2012): This was posted to the local birding list today, about the situation at Boundary Bay where the video below was shot: About 4:30pm a woman from [a rehabilitation society] up the road was seen walking out to the various groups and very kindly asking them to retreat back to the dike. [...]

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Moon Roost

February 7, 2012 Bird Noir

click for larger image Every night, they dart under the highway bridge, buzzing boaters as their wings slice the air above the channel. Cormorants, nature’s flying and diving machines, are sleek and malleable to the point of being reptilian. Everything about the cormorant says speed … everything except parking it at the roost. As branches [...]

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GooseORama

February 4, 2012 Birds

This was a much better day for the Snow Geese — better than my last visit to Snow Goose Central. Hunting season is done, and all of the goose shooting on Fir Island is now camera-only. I started off at this field with one other photographer, and by the time I left, there were six [...]

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Eagle Noir

February 2, 2012 Bird Noir

I joke (but it’s true) that my best eagle and osprey in moments in the Northwest happen in silhouette. There’s the issue of light, and how low and flat it tends to be in the winter. There’s also the issue of my luck — where the light is perfect, I’m pointed in the right direction, [...]

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These Feet are Made for Diving

January 31, 2012 Ducks and Others

Ducks have reason to be nervous around us humans in the winter, and diving ducks are always dive-ready if danger is imminent. Sometimes, I refrain from even pointing my lens at ducks, having learned that this act alone can be a stressor for them. Almost all flying ducks will divert course, even a little, when [...]

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Bald Eagles Wear the Pants

January 29, 2012 Pacific Northwest

At the height of Bald Eagle season in Rockport and Marblemount, along the Skagit River, you’ll see dozens of eagles, lumbering across the sand bars, dragging and pillaging salmon carcasses. I like to say that birds like pigeons have jodhpurs — with flared plumes tapering into claws. Eagles, on the other hand, look like they’re [...]

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The “Cripples” … or Why I Hate Wing Shooting

January 28, 2012 Birds

Yesterday evening, we were photographing Snow Geese and didn’t realize that we (along with at least 10 other photographers) had chosen a field where hunters were lying in camo. I promised myself I would wait until hunting season was over before I ventured into the wilds beyond Seattle — just as I did last year. [...]

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The Flying Wallendas … I Mean, Pijendas

January 26, 2012 Birds

I’m a sucker for pigeons. I loved them long before Hugh and I rescued a couple of lost racing pigeons, and I continue to love them long after. People who’ve never observed pigeons will marvel when they first notice how pigeons out-maneuver Peregrines in harrowing chases. These birds, whose ancestors sprang from the cliffs alongside [...]

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Tribute to a Great Heron … a Blue One

January 24, 2012 Birds

I’m one of those people who can’t even give an injured quail a ride in the car without bonding (just a little) to the outcome. Similarly, when I’m out photographing — in those cases where I frequent a location and see the same animals repeatedly — I develop a keen interest in their well-being. For [...]

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Ice Storm

January 19, 2012 Macrocosm

Macros of the ice crystals on our windows this morning. * Shot with my Panasonic FZ50 bridge camera plus a Raynox-250 snap-on macro lens. Photographed in Seattle, during the first snow storm of 2012.

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Grackles & Apples …

January 17, 2012 Birds

… and grackles foraging across Nevada, exploiting urban food scraps. One of my favorite things about visiting southern climates is the summer night chatter of grackles … the cavatina that becomes the dissonant ensemble of grackle song when huge groups of the birds roost on urban plazas. These were winter-time grackles — Great-tailed Grackles roaming [...]

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Having a Heart for Horses

January 16, 2012 Laws & Policy

In commemoration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday: “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. ” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. I’ve [...]

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The Wild Horses of Vegas

January 10, 2012 Mammals

You see signs of wild horses before you ever see horses … And, along the way, these signs … From the point where I turned off the highway north of Las Vegas and headed west into wild horse country, I drifted under the speed limit in anticipation — watching for horses on the two-lane road [...]

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No Frozen Hummingbirds, Please

January 6, 2012 Birds

In the winter of 2011, my hummingbird nectar froze into a giant lifesaver of an ice cube. I’m a Californian which means I’m used to nectar that ferments into birdie moonshine after a few days in the sun. But last year we migrated north to Seattle … at the same time Anna’s Hummingbirds decide not [...]

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Best 2011 Pics … or Favorite Pics of 2011?

December 29, 2011 Bay Area Faves

A 12/31/11 Edit: HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Wishing you a beautiful start to 2012! Every year, for five years now, Jim Goldstein at the JMG-Galleries Blog invites photographers to participate in his “Best Photos” project. Bloggers post about their top five or ten images from that year, then send the link to Jim who compiles [...]

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Giving Birds a Fair Distance

December 11, 2011 Birds

Off-season, I regularly walk the trail loops at Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle. It’s one of the longer spurs of waterfront access in a city where much of the waterfront is privately held. So, when I’m feeling homesick for San Francisco Bay and the miles of open trails, I find solace at the Arboretum. In [...]

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Bird Noir

December 3, 2011 Art

There are wildlife photographers who apologize for any urban elements — like street lamps — in their bird images. I embrace those shots, for three reasons: I admire the rugged survivalists that are urban birds and wildlife. What we throw at them in the way of obstacles, pollution, windows, automobiles, poisons, traps, wires and electricity, [...]

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ingrid

The Case For a Wildlife Watchers ‘Duck Stamp’

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