On the morning of Friday, March 07, 2014, we finally got a little break in the weather that had been plaguing us for the past week or so.  My wife had plans to be away from the house and so I decided I was going to bird… and for me at this stage of my life, birding equates to photographing birds.  My original thought was to take to the car to see what I could find, but the previous day our first Rufous hummingbird (a male) had shown up and I thought there was a good chance that either it, or another would visit the yard and so I decided to first try my luck in the yard.  It was a fortuitous decision! 

In the course of a little less than three hours (9:50am – ~ 1:00pm) I had a rich assortment of avian visitors.  None of the visitors were unusual, but they provided some unusual photo opportunities.  I ended up taking 209 photos, saved 103 after processing and obtained some excellent photos of some birds which I usually have a very difficult time photographing.  Not only that, but I was able to photograph some birds at just beyond the minimum distance at which my Nikkor 200-400mm lens will focus… about 16 feet. 

The weather cooperated… the temperature was above 50-degrees and the sky was partly (but mostly) cloudy.  At those few times the sun actually shown it was more a detriment than an asset.  For the past couple of weeks I’ve set the ISO on my camera to 320 to take advantage of the extra exposure it gives me in the darker light.  In theory this probably gives me a little less sharpness in my photos but it allows me to photograph in darker areas at a slightly faster shutter speed.  I believe that all my photos taken this day were taken at 1/250 of a second and I used a monopod to steady my camera (Nikon D-7100) and lens. 

So here’s the list of what I saw in the yard today.  An ‘*’ designates that I obtained photos of the bird(s), but not all the photographed birds are included in this post.  . 

 * Varied thrush (2M)

* Spotted towhee (2M)

* House sparrow (M&F)

* Golden-crowned sparrow

* Fox sparrow (2)

* Song sparrow

* Northern flicker (M+1)

* Brown creeper – the find of the day and a couple of excellent photographs!

* Bewick’s wren

* Anna’s hummingbird (M) – bathing in watercourse

* Dark-eyed junco – Oregon race

* Dark-eyed junco – Slate-colored race

* Black-capped chickadee

American robin

Red-breasted nuthatch

Chestnut-backed chickadee

The result of this is that I was probably burdened with just about as much processing time as the three hours it took me to acquire the images.  I shouldn’t complain and this   provides me with a really good blog post. 

This signals a period of transition for my photography.  In the winter I usually find it more comfortable and productive to drive through the county looking for the birds of winter (mostly waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors).  In the spring and summer I have much better photographic opportunities in my own yard with landscaping designed to attract and photograph birds.  So in the coming months you will start seeing many more photographs that will have been taken in our own yard. 

It’s winter, and the photographic conditions in the yard are something akin to dismal.  However from time to time I give it a try anyway.  Such was the case on Mon, 3/3/2014 when I huddled under our generous overhanging eave to keep my camera out of the mist and photographed some of the birds in the yard.

My objective was to get photos of a couple of our rarer birds, the Slate-colored Dark-eyed junco…

and the Varied thrush.

We also had visits from a Spotted towhee…

and a Song sparrow …

And here is one more view of the Slate-colored junco, a species that has been visiting our yard for at least the past six winters.  While I haven’t seen them at the same time, I think we probably have two that visit the yard due to different coloring.  (See 2/27/2014 post.)

I decided to spend a little time outside this afternoon (3/6/2014) with the thought that the strong, southerly winds might bring in our first Rufous hummingbird.  That’s exactly what happened!

As soon as I sat down I saw a back-lit hummingbird in our dead pine tree, but I couldn’t see any color.  It flew while I was still trying to focus on it, but a minute or two later there was a male Rufous hummingbird visiting a couple of blooming bushes and chasing a couple of chickadees around the yard.  It landed on a small fence but disappeared from the yard a minute or so later, and I never saw it return.

But for the record, this is a photo of our first Rufous hummingbird of the season!  There will be many more, and much better photos to come!

On Friday afternoon (2/28/2014) the wind was blowing but it was a bright, sunny afternoon and I hated to waste it.  It was a very good thing I didn’t because I had a rather unique birding/photography experience.

I began my excursion by stopping by the Cap Sante Marina where I spied a Common loon lurking rather close to the northwest shore of the marina.  I stopped, gathered my camera equipment and by the time I got over to the water the loon had disappeared.  Since they often spend a considerable time diving I wasn’t surprised, but as I gazed across some grass on the shore the sunlight glinted off of something where there shouldn’t have been anything reflective.  Further investigation lead me to the loon… at this point about three feet onto the shore!  This is the first time I have ever seen a loon out of water!

I wasted no time in taking many photographs and, while the loon seemed interested in me, it definitely wasn’t afraid at this point.  I finally left it on the shore and went on my way, hoping that it wasn’t sick or injured.

I next birded March Point, practicing my “skeet shooting” on the gulls that were enjoying the wind.  I probably took 30-40 photographs of gulls in flight, discarding many because the bright sun cast shadows on various parts of the gulls anatomy… but I still retained almost 20 photographs after processing.  And I have to say, I’m getting pretty good at photographing birds in flight!

After finding little else to photograph on March Point other than a pair of Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race) I headed back home… via the Cap Sante Marina.  As I drove by the southeast side of the marina I spotted a Common loon, and again went stalking with my camera equipment.  There is no doubt in my mind that this was the same loon… it allowed me to approach to within about 20′ of it and never took any evasive action.  During the course of about half an hour it dove and preened virtually beside me.  I was encouraged that this was the same loon and that it was healthy as I saw it diving and twice bringing food back to the surface.

As a veteran of loon-stalking in the marina over the years, I can say that this was indeed atypical behavior from what I have observed in the past!

On Monday, Feb 24 (the day it rained all day!) I drove by the Cap Sante Marina on the way home.  I saw the recently-returned Pied-billed grebe in the northwest corner of the marina (it’s been showing up for years!) and it appeared that it might have made landfall near a small mound of grass just offshore.  It was difficult for me to see its exact location in the rain but I decided to return with my camera as I don’t think I’ve ever photographed a grebe out of the water.  I need not have worried, because when I returned with my camera a short time later it was back out in the main body of water.

I then noticed what I at first thought was a gull (remember it was raining) in the same area, but on closer examination I discovered that it was a Canvasback (duck).  I took a couple of photos in miserable conditions just because I had never seen or photographed a Canvasback in Skagit County, but ended up discarding the photos for ones I was to take the following day.

And while I was sitting in a small gazebo to photograph the duck I received a call from a friend who works at Skagit Wild Bird, located on Memorial Highway on the outskirts of Mount Vernon.  He told me that a male Western tanager had been hanging around the store that morning.  Since I was already out I decided to drive to Skagit Wild Bird despite the weather.  I spent a couple of miserable hours in the front of my car, and then in the back of my SUV with the hatchback raised… all to no avail as far as the tanager was concerned.  However I did obtain what is probably my best-ever photo of a Eurasian Collared dove.

The next day (Tue, Feb 25) dawned bright and sunny so after my morning walk I retrieved my camera and headed out.  The Canvasback was back at the marina and in a much more accessible location and I took almost 50 photos from a relatively short distance.  About the only position I didn’t photograph the bird was upside down!

Canvasback initiating its dive.

I then drove to Skagit Wild Bird to see if the tanager might still be there.  After a moderate wait I was rewarded with the Western tanager making a trip to the suet feeder.  (In the interest of brevity, I’m leaving out some of the interesting details.)  While I didn’t manage photos of the bird taken in my immediate vicinity, I was able to photograph the bird at some distance.  They are not great photos, but considering that this is a male Western Tanager who is here in the month of February, I decided I should post one anyway.

And while I’m at it, I should mention that Skagit Wild Bird has some great people working there and carries a very wide inventory of bird feeders and supplies!