washington

I Felt Like an Osprey Paparazzo …

May 5, 2012 Birds

… saying (silently), c’mon, Osprey, look to the sun, a little catch light in the eye, please. Shot at 600mm equivalent and cropped.

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Osprey Noir

April 19, 2012 Animal Behavior

I figured it was about time I added to my Bird Noir series. I was on Elliott Bay, looking out for the re-tern of the terns — Caspian Terns — when I saw this Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) flying toward me. I pre-focused where I thought she might be fishing, but she veered off to my [...]

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Showdown at the Osprey Cell Tower

April 18, 2012 Animal Behavior

Three’s a crowd … even in the Osprey world. I’ll get back to that thought in a minute. There are two Osprey nesting platforms within three miles of our place, plus several others within ten miles. Last week, all of the Osprey returned to my local spots within the span of a few days. I [...]

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Steelhead Poetry on the 18th Weir

April 16, 2012 Fish

This is a postscript to my previous notes on Steelhead Youth. Every year, the audio system in the fish ladder viewing area (Ballard Locks) broadcasts a series of oral histories, each relating to a particular cycle of salmon migration. Right now in April, when you press the red button, you’ll hear about the juvenile steelhead [...]

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Steelhead Youth

April 16, 2012 Endangered Species

Puget Sound steelhead travel through the Ballard Locks at a fraction of their glory-day numbers. According to this post at the Friends of the Ballard Locks blog, two to three thousand steelhead used to migrate through the locks. Now, if visitors see just one steelhead looking back at them through the window, they’re lucky. A [...]

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Arc of the Kingfisher

April 10, 2012 Birds

I have a few terabytes of backlogged photos I’ve never posted — many of which should probably stay archived. But, I thought for sure I’d published this one. When I searched my blog archives, it appears this image never touched the pages of The Quark. This is a banner I created last year of a [...]

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Bird Photography Outtakes

April 2, 2012 Birds

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in Seattle, Washington. Okay, I’m pretty careful when I’m photographing around roosts. And, cormorants give you plenty of warning with all of the guano splatters below their perches. In fact, I can’t think of the last time I got hit by a big bird … so, it’s funny that on the [...]

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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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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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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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Derelict Nets & Entangled Birds

October 19, 2011 Bay Flotsam

Note: All gulls pictured in this post, and other trapped birds were freed from the netting. Follow Up on 10/21/11: I phoned today and learned that an official went out to this net, confirmed what we saw in terms of bird entanglement, and holes in the net have apparently been fixed as a temporary measure, [...]

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Yellow Woolly Bear

October 18, 2011 Bug Nation

My caterpillar ID is rusty, to say the least, so a Flickr user helped me identify this caterpillar as a Yellow woolly bear or Spilosoma virginica — destined to become a tiger moth. I posted about a different variety of woolly bear after a trip to Bodega Head last year where we got some close [...]

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Pinniped R&R

October 17, 2011 Marine Mammals

(about pinnipeds) This group of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) was hauled out on a dock in Westport, Washington. The scene reminded me of Pier 39 in San Francisco — although on a much smaller scale. California sea lions are a protected species and, by law, all marine mammals should be viewed from a distance [...]

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If Orcas Could Buy Sofas …

October 2, 2011 Marine Mammals

Orcas can’t, of course, pick out sofas. But if they could, they would tell you that their survival may depend on the product and furniture choices we make — and the industries we support in the process. The orcas of the Salish Sea, who regularly cross the international boundary between Washington State and British Columbia, [...]

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Kingfisher of the New Wave

April 3, 2011 Birds

photos ©ingridtaylar – email me for permissions Big-haired, 80s-style, Belted Kingfisher — on a windy day in Des Moines, Washington. Kingfishers are famously elusive when they see a lens pointed at them. This girl had good fishing prospects at the Des Moines Marina, so she put up with me for the sake of her prime [...]

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Bald Eagle in the Backyard

March 8, 2011 Raptors

This is a huge bonus of living in Seattle: the urban and suburban wildlife includes a multitude of Bald Eagles. This morning, Hugh went into our friends’ garden to fill up their bird feeder — a chore we both kind of enjoy. A huge contingent of birds descends right when our boots leave the scene [...]

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Eagle En Route . . .

February 23, 2011 Ducks and Others

. . . it’s a Seattle thing. First alert — a look overhead and warning calls: American Wigeon first responders leave lone Eurasian Wigeon to contemplate his next move: And he’s off: Safety in numbers: The instigator comes into view: The juvenile Bald Eagle shows little interest in the ducks, catches the thermals, and whirls [...]

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Wigeon Report

February 15, 2011 Ducks and Others

I went to the local duck pond to follow up on the American Wigeon flock that took residence there in the late fall. The one Eurasian Wigeon in the flock is still among them . . . I’m not sure if he has a mate. There were several obvious couplings in the group, with pairs [...]

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Flight of the Snow Geese

February 3, 2011 Birds

Snow Goose – Chen caerulescens Hugh and I waited until the end of duck hunting season to drive into Skagit Valley’s Fir Island. We were hoping to find one of the massive flocks of Snow Geese who winter around the island after a long migration south. When hunting season ends in late January, there’s a [...]

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A Bird Called Hummingway

January 14, 2011 Birds

He was christened Mr. Hummingway by a dear friend who likes birds but is ambivalent about interaction with birds. She had formative experiences that made her view birds as flapping missiles who get tangled in your hair, dive bomb you, or suddenly ditch into the open window of your moving car on a freeway. Those [...]

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House Fly Cafe

October 11, 2010 Bug Nation

Could be a diner shuttered by the Health Department, or . . . A house fly doing what house flies do: bringing up saliva to liquefy food. Flies tend to stand still through their moments of digestion, making macros of this phenomenon possible. Shot on a friend’s porch, after a rain deluge, with my Panasonic [...]

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