Union Bay Natural Area

Otherwise known as the Montlake Fill is an amazing refuge in the backyard of the UW's campus.

I saw a pair of Harlan's Red-tailed hawks. The other was being pestered by crows in a neighboring tree.

Cinnamon Teal

Killdeer

Down by the lake

I don't know why I'm still surprised by the urban wildlife in our neighborhoods and in a way thankful that I have the time (laid-off/unemployed) to visit these backyard treasures. On a recent visit to Seward Park, I was able to see cute, fuzzy chicks, raccoons foraging in the reeds, red-winged blackbirds, an elusive kingfisher, turtles mating (maybe I should post that photo with my raccoons mating video), cormorants drying their wings, a bald eagle circling- just to name a few. All you need is time and a little bit of patience.

Rediscovering Discovery Park

I recently visited Discovery Park and was delighted to be led on an unfamiliar trail. I guess I shouldn’t have been completely surprised since Discovery Park is the largest city park in Seattle with more than 500 acres. Unless you were familiar with all of the trails or had a map one would probably stick to the more notable and familiar trails- like I have done over so many years.

This time, however, I was shown a beautiful trail along Shilshole Bay. We walked from the North parking lot and followed some zigzagging trails until we were northwest of the parking lot in a remote picnic field. We followed some stairs that led us amongst the trees and down to the beach. From the rocky beach I could see the Shilshole Marina and Golden Garden Park. We had an unobscured view of the Puget Sound along the trail which eventually brought us to the wetlands near the Wastewater Treatment Facility.

One of my favorite places at Discovery Park is the marsh beside the Wastewater Treatment Facility. We saw red-winged blackbirds, a turtle and heard a frog that never revealed itself to us.
I also discovered an ornithologist’s checklist for Discovery Park and hope to visit more often.

Kiwanis Ravine Revisited

Last Friday I returned to Kiwanis Ravine in Magnolia with a group of friends to see if there was any activity at the herons nesting site since the last visit in March was unsuccessful. We walked to the pedestrian overlook but there was no sign of any herons amongst the trees. Surprisingly we saw a few herons on a neighboring house. It seems the herons preferred the new housing structure to their old digs.

Lucky day for eagle sightings

This Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for me. I met up with some friends and spent the day at the Arboretum. We had planned to go outside if the weather was nice and take some photos and it turned out to be another gorgeous day.

I have always wanted to try out the Canon 100-400mm telephoto lens and today was my chance. A friend was kind enough to entrust me with his lens. OMG! My first realization- I need to work out if I ever want to own one of these lenses. I may be 98lbs, but I’m scrappy! I have spent years lugging around an slr with a zoom lens but this was a whole different animal and today I wasn’t going to use a tripod.

As the afternoon progressed, we were fortunate to see several bald eagles at Duck Bay near the visitor center. I did the best I could with the lens and managed not to tip over backward trying to capture the eagles soaring overhead. And all had a good laugh at me and the monstrosity of a camera + lens. I must say I fared pretty well considering I had the image-stabilizer turned off the entire time quite by accident! It should be interesting to see the results when the image-stabilizer is turned on. Sharp- I bet.

The most memorable part of the afternoon was when we were walking back through Azalea Lane with the glorious sun shining down upon us and when we looked up at the clear, blue sky we saw a kettle of eagles (six to be exact). They were too high up in the thermals to even attempt to photograph and beside my back, hands and fingers couldn't take any more. At least there were other witnesses.

Just imagine how sharp these could have been if the image-stabilizer was turned on! Oh well, it was fun and a good learning experience.

Nesting Herons

I just went to check out the herons nesting at Thornton Creek, literally at 95th NE and Sandpoint Way. What a beautiful sight. I have never had a chance to see herons nesting before even though there are quite a few known sites around Seattle neighborhoods. I guess being laid-off has it's perks- I get to take advantage of a gorgeous day. While I was there I also saw a hawk flying around the nests but the crows chased it away.

Afterwards I swung by Kiwanis Ravine in Magnolia to see if the other known heron nesting spot was active. There was nothing going on there. So I'll leave you with these herons from Sandpoint Way.