A close look at the face of a western painted turtle enjoying a spring afternoon in the Pacific Northwest.
Tag: Washington
The Happy Shoveler
Even when not in their prettiest plumage, shovelers are fun to watch.
Christmas Summer
Male shovelers transition through several different plumages in a year. According to my Sibley guide, this male’s plumage would typically be on display during the summer, but I took this picture on Christmas day. The males have lovely green heads in their breeding plumage, but in this look resemble the females in many ways.
Time to Say Goodbye
A juvenile great blue heron hunts for voles in a meadow on a Christmas afternoon. The direct light of the setting sun was now blocked by the distant hills so I took a few pictures in the fading light before heading for home. I had photographed this heron before and spent about 15 minutes with it on this occasion, so it felt comfortable enough to turn its back to me even at such a close distance.
Blue Sunset
A juvenile great blue heron hunts in the last throes of direct sunlight on a Christmas afternoon.
Emerging
A red-legged frog emerges from Bower Slough still partially covered in duckweed.
Crossing Over
When car shopping a couple of years ago, I only considered cars where it was easy to cross from the driver’s seat to the passenger’s seat. I was specifically thinking of situations like this at the auto tour at my local refuge, where I saw a family of river otters to the right of the car and the best views were from the passenger seat. Thankfully crossing over is easy to do in the Subaru Crosstrek we bought and I was able to watch the otters for quite a while as they groomed and played and ate. I was struck by how, even in the midst of vigorous play, the siblings would catch a fish when the opportunity presented itself and enjoy a quick snack before resuming play.
Floating
A male bullfrog floats in quiet contrast to many of the others nearby that were either wrestling with males or mating with females.
Sol Duc
One of the branches of Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park. I was struck by how the little yellow flowers had found purchase and were able to grow on the hard rocks.
Horse Thieves
Visit Ridgefield during the winter and nearly every body of water will have American coots on it. I spent a good deal of time this past winter photographing coots at Horse Lake, a seasonal pond at the start of the auto tour, trying to capture different aspects of their lives, such as how American wigeon will dash over to eat the plants a coot has worked loose from the lake bed.
The wigeon will swim over after a coot dives and try to eat what it brings up when it surfaces. Many times it seems to me they spend more energy chasing after the coots than if they had just dabbled in the shallow water to feed themselves. Other ducks like gadwall also participate in this thievery – as do other coots as well – but the wigeon are relentless. For their part, the coots put up with it without much fuss. Here, a male and female pair come at the coot from each side.
Boolie 