Boolie

Reunited

I spent the summer of 1994 on the eastern coast of Florida and, as an animal lover, was delighted to discover a nearby wildlife refuge, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. There was much to love about the park but it was the alligators that drew me back again and again. Yet my only camera at the time was a point-and-shoot which wasn’t well suited to the task. I wasn’t into photography at the time and regardless couldn’t afford a better camera.

I returned to school in the fall and in January was surprised to receive a check from Motorola, a bonus (a rather nice one) from my time as an intern. I was on fellowship by that time and had already budgeted my expenses for the year so I decided to treat myself to my first SLR, a Canon Rebel with a kit lens and an inexpensive telephoto. My wife bought me a bird guide and thus began my foray into photography.

But I didn’t return to Florida the next summer and instead stayed at school to concentrate on my doctorate, and the next year I finished my degree and moved to Oregon. So it seemed my chance to photograph alligators had come to a close.

But when my mom and stepdad retired they moved to South Carolina and during a family reunion in 2005 my brother and I headed out before sunrise to a nearby park, Huntington Beach State Park. We photographed the sunrise on the beach and then went back up towards the lagoon, with freshwater on one side and saltwater on the other. My time in Florida came flooding back. There were egrets and herons and cormorants hunting in the marsh. And alligators! So many alligators! I was also able to see them again the following morning before it was time to head to the airport and return to Oregon.

This time, with alligator pictures.

This Used to be Goodbye

It used to be when I left the River S Unit at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and started my trek home, I’d round the bend and get this lovely view of Mount St. Helens. Early in 2004 I stopped to take a picture of the volcano with the foothills coated in snow, as they were just starting to convert a meadow into a subdivision and I knew the view wouldn’t last.

A large number of new subdivisions have gone in since as the sleepy little town transforms into a bedroom community for Vancouver and Portland. I’ve often thought about how wonderful it would be to live in one of those houses, to be able to roll out of bed near sunrise and be right at the refuge, but I wouldn’t seriously consider moving there — the refuge is on the other side of the Columbia from where I work and the commute would be soul-crushing.

Brothers in Arms

The receding tide left these sea stars high and dry above the tide pool, arm in arm, their forbidden love exposed.

Alert! Alert!

This is the look of a dog who heard the refrigerator door open and is using her ears and nose to determine if the cheese drawer is being opened (cheese, yummy cheese!) or her hot dog container is being taken out (she gets her medicine stuffed in hot dog slices). In her younger years when I’d close the fridge door she’d just magically be there, making me wonder if she was using wormholes to silently move from wherever she was sleeping to the fridge.

When I walk her and see how much she smells and hears that I can’t, I can’t help but ponder how much of the wonder of the world I’m missing even though it is literally under my nose.

Surprise in the Dogwood

We don’t get a large variety of birds to our urban backyard and to make matters worse I can’t easily put a chair by the window in my office that looks into the backyard. So I typically miss out on many seasonal visitors but on this rainy winter day I moved the cat tree out of the way and stuck my telephoto lens out of the window to see what was visiting our feeders. I was quite surprised when this Townsend’s warbler flitted into the dogwood, didn’t have much time to get the picture (it’s a bit out of focus and not well composed) but what a lovely little creature he was.

Puffball

A female bushtit looks like a little ball with her feathers puffed out against the cold on a rainy winter afternoon.

No Shelter From the Rain

A downpour on Christmas morning left this young red-tailed hawk, sitting on a signpost beside the auto tour, drenched from head to toe with water drops beading up on the feathers on its back. The heavy rain and the holiday morning also meant that I had the refuge pretty much to myself and I was able to observe this tolerant hawk at my leisure without having to worry about blocking the road.

Dry Feathers

A very similar picture to another female flicker photo (that one with wet feathers), taken a couple of weeks later. There was a family of flickers that used to visit our suet feeder but I haven’t noticed them as much lately. Maybe I’ve just missed them, I lost my early warning system when our birdwatcher-in-residence died early this year.

Suet for Starlings

We used to get a lot of starlings coming to our suet feeder, and especially in the spring when they were raising young, they could go through the suet rather quickly. Sometimes I’d still put the suet out regardless as Emma loved watching them and listening to the racket they made. Not sure why but I rarely see starlings at our feeder these days.

Sam at the Window

Sam in the cat tree, looking out of the window in my office, taken on the day after we adopted Boo in 2013. My mirrorless camera had just arrived so I was able to set it on the window sill and take the picture, I really like the freedom of camera placement that mirrorless cameras offer.