Results tagged “Wildlife” from V2

We've got nearly seven inches here on Sunnyside, and it doesn't show any sign of letting up tonight. With slightly warmer temperatures forecast, tomorrow could spell the end of the dense snowpack, but at this close to freezing things could stay ugly for a while. Here's a walk around the neighborhood while it was reasonably navigable this afternoon.

Last weekend, we went on a loop of the North Cascades to see some foliage and wildlife, and to escape a seemingly-growing pile of black fur (also apparently it was a birthday or something like that.) We were successful on all accounts, and here's the evidence. My new copy of Adobe Lightroom 2 has some fun features and development presets that let me really bring out the *POP* in these photos. See the whole set here.

I hired a Steller's Jay for some photography work in July. He worked for peanuts... literally. View the entire set here.

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center offers what they call Puffin Cruises on several Saturdays during the summer. The cruise goes to Protection Island NWR and other bird hotspots near Port Townsend.

We went on August 9, and here are some mediocre photos from that excursion. But hey, six new species spotted (most important among them the puffin, seen above), and a zillion eagles!

I finally got around to posting pictures from a cool, crisp, late-April trip out to the Pacific beaches of Grays Harbor County, where we visited hundreds of thousands of migrating sandpipers and other shorebirds that were town for a few days before they continued on up the coast to the Arctic for the summer breeding season. Check out the gallery here.

So with the house and tree-filled yard it was obvious that a bird feeder (or six) would liven things up, especially for Jasper.  So far there's now a Chickadee feeder (featured on a previous Caturday), two suet feeders -- one cheap basic metal cage and one fancy tail-prop feeder purchased after the brief sighting of a Pileated woodpecker in the pines -- a hummingbird feeder, a basic tube feeder (to distract the House Sparrows), a thistle sock, and a peanut wreath for the jays.

They've done a fine job of attracting the wildlife, with a herd of at least a dozen chickadees spearheading the wildlife extravaganza of Bushtits, House Sparrows, House Finches, Goldfinches, Bewick's Wrens, Nuthatches, Steller's Jays, and Northern Flickers... who are apparently the big winners here as the three of them have apparently decided they like to eat EVERYTHING.

To whit, I've recently started work on a BirdCam using the hardware leftover from the old Houseboat camera. It's not ready for prime time yet, but behold the first few tests...

This is how the chickadee feeder is supposed to work. Note the bird bath and two suet feeders in the background on the right side of the image, and of course, a chickadee who immediately figured out the feeder was for him.

This is a Flicker having an identity crisis.

Memorial Day weekend was wildly successful both in terms of birding and seeing great music at the Sasquatch Festival. Though they wouldn't let me take the SLR into the festival, I did take hundreds of shots throughout the county both before and after the music was done. Check out the wildlife and scenery gallery here. Final tally for the trip, twenty new bird species spotted, and many improved shots of others.

A group of male wild turkeys living in La Conner, WA started brawling as we were walking past them last Sunday. Luckily I had my camera with me, so I was able to get some interesting shots of the action. Click the picture to check out the gallery. (Also, Wild Turkey is a new species for the birdspotting list!)

Technically this project is already several months old, and started somewhat serendipitously when I realized I was taking a lot of bird photos and it would be good to keep track of them. Birders generally keep what is known as a "life list" where they often quest to exotic locales to check off rare and unusual species, sort of like trading baseball cards to collect an entire year or team's cards.

Anyway, I'm certainly not that motivated or insane, but since I am taking a lot of treks and photos of birds it made sense to start tracking these sightings in a more orderly fashion. Thus, Birdspotting 2008 was born.

The rules are simple:

1. All birds must have been spotted on or after January 1, 2008
2. The bird must be readily identifiable (thus no fleeting visions of a random wren and later speculation about what species it might have been.)
3. All birds must be photographed (although here, crappy photos are acceptable but subject to replacement by better shots in the future.)
4. All birds must be observed in the wild (no zoo or farm birds)

Simple enough, and around here at this time of year there are plenty of migrating birds to observe. Right now most of the birds have been limited to large birds of prey or seabirds, in part because they're a lot easier to photograph and locate, so we'll see how rule 3 pans out in the long term, or if that needs revision when I discover just how hard it is to capture a picture of a brown creeper in the dense underbrush.

Continue after the break for the list thus far, along with a link to my photos of each species on Flickr.

Best invention ever.

Under The Needle: A vending machine to crow about...

Klein studied crows for six years and validated what he already suspected: They're unusually smart. They learn from each other. And there are loads of them.

Thus, the idea for a crow vending machine was born.

Awesome. Click the image to go to the full story. (Photo uncredited, but from the P-I article.)

The gallery from the Washington Park Arboretum trek is now posted. Take a gander (or a heron) at it here. This Great Blue Heron was fishing in the marshes between MOHAI and the 520 bridge, just out-of-sight of most hikers who didn't take a careful look into the weeds.

(Also, in case you missed the update to yesterday's kiteboarding post, that gallery is also posted and can be found here.)

Every January hundreds of bald eagles travel to the middle reaches of the Skagit River en route to nesting grounds, stopping for several weeks to enjoy delicious salmon, get photographed by thousands of tourists and be feted by locals. Heather and I trekked up there yesterday (and then onward to Deception Pass) to enjoy some unseasonably beautiful weather... once the fog finally burned off around mid-day.

Enjoy the new GALLERY.  (updated 2/27 to point to new gallery location at Flickr)

This morning while I was making my breakfast, Jasper started meowling excitedly at the back door and a mysterious chirping noise came from outside. I looked out in time to see a Steller's Jay rummaging around in my potted herbs, presumably digging for grubs or seeds. I've seen a few of them roosting in the nearby pines and madrona trees, screaming their harsh, crackly squawk out at all hours, but this was the closest to the door that I had seen any of them.

Unfortunately, on this shot the flash went off and startled the bird, sending him up to a nearby tree screaming at me the entire time.

Taken from our house, Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington - Aug 14, 2007 (click images to enlarge)

A crow perched yesterday on my weather station's wind vane. The angle of the sun on the anemometer must have resulted in a flashing pattern as it spun which attracted his attention. In these pictures the vane is pointing east due to him spinning on it, even though the wind was actually coming from the north. As seen in the second shot, he reached down and physically stopped the anemometer with his beak and held it still for a few moments before finally taking off and returning to a nearby tree.

Taken from our kitchen, Queen Anne, Seattle, WA - July 30, 2007 (click images to enlarge)

Every night, within minutes of 8:00 pm, flock upon flock of crows pass over our house flying south, toward what must be a very large roosting ground near downtown. It starts with a few birds cawing and soon turns into a swarm of black as hundreds of birds silently flap past. Wave upon wave of birds come over the rooftops to the north and swoop past the tree line to the south, on to their nightly endeavors. This lasts for about fifteen minutes, after which the air clears, the sun sets, and only the occasional late straggler caws en route to the gathering.

The pictures really don't do it justice.

All taken from our back porch in Queen Anne - July 26, 2007 (click images to enlarge)

Spider and web on our back deck, Queen Anne, Seattle, WA - July 9, 2007 (click image to enlarge)