Pacific Loon

About two weeks ago a Pacific Loon was found at a local residential pond. It is a very unusual bird to find on the east coast. The bird hung around for a week so last weekend my wife and I headed down to see if. When we arrived we aw a few birders along one side but we decided to drive around the edge of the pond to see if there was a place to park and what else we might see. On the far side of the pond we found a Horned Grebe in breeding plumage. It afforded us several good looks but a little far for camera range.

Horned Grebe

Common (left) and Pacific (right) Loons

There were also plenty of Lesser Scaup and an American Coot. We then drove back to the front side of the pond where we had seen the other birder when we first arrived. They were packing up but mentioned they had seen the Pacific Loon and it was moving all over the pond. So we set up the spotting scope and starting hunting through the loons that we could see in the middle of the pond. the Pacific Loon isn't a whole lot different from the Common Loons that were in winter plumage. So we had to study each one. Key identifying marks are a thinner bill, browner plumage, and less white on the throat and around the eye compared to Common Loons. The birds were hard to study since they would only stay on the surface for a few seconds before diving. And then they would come up quite a distance away. So we would have to watch for one to surface, get the scope on it and then start looking for the field marks anew since we couldn't tell if it was the one had been looking at or not. Eventually we could start telling that one was different from the rest and finally identify it as the Pacific Loon. It was a fun challenge. Plus, there was one Common Loon that was most of the way to molting to breeding plumage; something we seldom see here in the south.

Here are a few pictures of the Pacific Loon and breeding Common Loon.

Pacific Loon

Common Loon in breeding plumage

And this turned out to be a three loon winter as I also saw Red-throated Loons on the Christmas Bird Count.

Be sure to check out the other outstanding bird photographs at Wild Bird Wednesday.

Meteor Show

Last night as my wife and I were headed out to dinner we took a long route trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of comet PANSTARRS but couldn't find it. But as we approached the local Air Force base we saw a bright light streak across the sky. I thought maybe it was a plane because it was low but seemed level and traveled right along the line of the runway (parallel) to us. But my wife saw what she thought was a tail. Well, it turns out it was a meteor that was seen up and down the east coast.

And then on the way home after dinner we saw a shooting star; much smaller than the meteor. And pretty interesting since the American Meteor Society calls March the slowest month for meteor showers.

Quite an interesting night.

Suffolk Art Show

A local, small art museum holds an annual juried photography show. A friend of mine convinced me to submit some photos last year. I managed to get one of three selected. It was actually my least favorite of the three I submitted but perhaps the most "artistic." It was this rather graphical crushed bike on a bridge in Amsterdam.

Dutch Transportation

This year I came up with three more to submit and again one was selected. After seeing the show, I'm kind of surprised that I got any in as the jurist had quite a different artistic eye than I do. I was not impressed with many of the selections that got in but I guess that is the nature of art. Most of my interaction with photographers are people who focus on nature and landscape photography. Much of this show is more fine art and graphical photography. So it is definitely interesting seeing how others approach photography.

Perhaps the most interesting submission was a small box with three glass panes in it. Each pane had a portion of a picture of a flock of birds departing a tree. There was a small light in the back that lit the scene. It gave an interesting 3D impression.

Below are my submissions with the top one being the one selected.

Lupines on Hurricane Ridge

Rainy Afternoon

Northern Gannets

Early Spring Visitors

Today, the first day of daylight savings time, we have a few uncommon visitors to the yard. I was out taking test shots with my new Canon 7D when I heard some shorebirds approaching. They were only making single peek calls but as they flew overhead I saw that they were Killdeer. They landed in a muddy spot in the marsh and started feeding. Finally they gave their classic kill-deer call. I switched lens and called my wife back to see them. Luckily they stayed for quite some time. Really too far to photograph except for identification purposes. We've had Killdeer over the marsh before but this is the first time I remember seeing them land. And four at once!

We then saw a Tree Swallow, first-of-season, and Laughing Gull, also first-of-season. The Tree Swallow is new for our yard list. Probably a bookkeeping error as we both think we have seen them before here. We ended up with 28 species including two immature Bald Eagles that seemed to be fighting for the same wind. they were slowing rising on a thermal over the creek but once seemed to purposely run into the other occasionally. We also saw a Double-crested Cormorant swimming in the creek. Again,  I don't remember seeing one swimming in the creek right here.

Good way to call Spring closer.

A Fun time with fungis

I have always really like fungus and mushrooms.  When I was a Boy Scout and did a lot of hiking, tree fungi were one of the few things that I learned to identify (not that I remember anything besides Chicken of the Forest).  There is something about their colors and sudden appearance that attracts me.  I have often tried taking pictures but usually without much success.  Sure, once in a while something good will come out of my attempt but most of the time they end up blah.

A few weeks ago my wife and I were at the local botanical gardens and there was a photo show of mushrooms.  Again, only one or two really stood out as good photographs.  And there are some good photographers in that group.  As we talked about it we came up with a couple of reasons why it is so hard to get beautiful photographs of fungus.

First, while they can be striking, they are usually not the most attractive of subjects.  That immediately puts the photography in a tough situation.  You have to turn something kind of ugly, or real ugly in some cases, into something people would enjoy viewing.

Second, mushrooms usually grow in deep under stories where the light isn't good.  OK, where the light sucks.  And a lot of mushrooms don't stand out all that much from their surroundings.

And finally, they are really low to the ground.  It is hard to get that low and then not have leaves, grass, twigs, etc. get into distracting positions.

But, when you do get a good shot, it can really be something.  So here are a few of my favorites.

In this case I took advantage of all of the similar colors, placed the mushroom over in the corner and avoided distractions of trying to separate the mushroom from the leave litter.

In this case I was able to get quite close with a macro set-up (extension tube and lens) and just focus on the ribs. This again removed any distractions sticking up in the background.  I think the shallow depth of field really focuses the attention on the mushroom.

For this one I moved a few of the fallen twigs that were poking up.  The mushroom is on a rise from the trail so I could get down to it's level with my tripod. And I like the repeated slope of the mushroom cap and the moss behind it.

This one helped out by lifting the distracting element and made it an intricate part of the image.  The little sprig of grass is beside the mushroom so it adds a sense of scale instead of being distracting.  The the humor of the mushroom lifting the twig offsets any other technical problems.

And finally, my all-time favorite mushroom picture. My wife and I saw this while hiking in the Shenandoah Mountains last year. These mushrooms were growing out of the side of a bank at about waist level.  Easy to get to there level   My wife let me borrow her macro lens so I could get in really close.  they are probably no more than 1/4 inch tall.

Check out the other bloggers at Macro Monday and Our World Tuesday.

Seattle

My trip to the Pacific Northwest (See Hurricane Ridge posts) finished up with a day and a half in Seattle.  On Saturday, my wife and I left our B&B on the Olympic Peninsula and headed to the Botanical Gardens in Bellevue.  Being the intrepid gardener that she is, she really wanted to see a garden out there.  The climate for gardening is quite different from our home environment in Virginia and can support a much wider range of flowers.  We had planned on taking a ferry across Puget Sound but the GPS failed us and took back along the land route. Not only was it disappointing that we didn't get the ferry ride, and the possible birds along the way, but we hit heavy traffic in Tacoma.  When we arrived at the gardens it was Art in the Gardens day so it was quite crowded.  We did manage to get away from the main crowds and enjoy some of the flower displays and the wooded areas.  It was a nice place to visit but would have been better if we weren't already a bit stressed and overwhelmed with the crowds.  Below are a few shots from the gardens.

Sunday morning my wife headed back home.  Leaving the West Coast for the East Coast means an early flight, especially with the need for a connecting flight.  So I dropped her off at the airport about 5:30 am.  Since I was up, I decided to try to do some birdwatching.  According to the local birding trail guidebook, there was a beach in West Seattle that might offer a good chance at seeing migrating shore birds.  As I drove out there I noticed that the sunrise was going to be beautiful. There were high clouds to the east but not too dense.  Just as the sky was lightening I came across a pull-off.  I decide to turn in and see if I can get some sunrise pictures.  There were already two photographers there.  The pull-off provided a great view across the water to downtown Seattle.  The sun was creeping towards the sky just south of the city skyline.

After getting these shots I talked with the other two guys about the beautiful sunrise and my plans for the afternoon.  While neither were wildlife photographers, they did mention that there would be a lot of birds down on Alki Beach. So I head through the little neighborhood and down to the beach.

  As I reach the beach I see that the main road is closed for a 5k run and there is no public parking available.  At a loss, I turn and head towards one end hoping to find some place to park.  But there are few intercepting roads and a lot of nice apartment and condo buildings but with restricted parking.  I finally make it to the far east end of the beach where there is a boat launch and an open parking lot.  I walked about 3/4 of a mile down the beach and back.  There are a fair number of birds but almost all of them are Glaucous-winged Gulls.  The most interesting thing I saw was an adult and juvenile gull pulling apart clam or some other shellfish.

Sunday afternoon I headed downtown to see the sights.  Without really trying, except for heading downhill, I ended up at the Pike Place Market.  After grabbing lunch and taking some street photos, I headed back to the hotel to meet a friend for dinner.  I followed the waterfront to my cross-street and found this nice Ferris Wheel that looked really nice against the darkening, cloudy sky. Luckily there wasn't any rain and we had a nice dinner on the water.  The rest of the week was spent in meetings so this was basically the end of my fun.

Tuesday's Turkeys

While out driving the Colonial Parkway outside Williamsburg, VA this weekend, my wife spotted these wild turkeys feeding next to a pull-off.  They were quite calm as we watched from the car and then I got out and retrieved my camera from the trunk and captured some pictures.  A second car with a photographer pulled up behind us and joined in.  The turkeys feed for about five minutes before slowly vanishing into the woods.

After enjoying these be sure to stop by Tuesday's Tweets and Wild Bird Wednesday for much better photographs.