Skagit Flats, 1/28/09

With a promise of some sun today, I headed back up to the Skagit Flats. While the skies were clearing, Fir Island didn't offer much. Once again there were a number of eagles in the distance but little else. Unlike the last trip up here there weren't any Snow Geese flying overhead. A bit odd since a mile or two down the road was a field covered with them.

So Padilla Bay was the next area to investigate. In a farmer's field between the Padilla Bay Interpretive Center and Samish Island was this Great Blue Heron.



Also in these fields were thousands of American Wigeons. While driving past the fields the Wigeons pretty much ignored the traffic going by. However as soon as I parked the birds started edging further away. I just didn't have enough reach even with a 1.4 TC on my 100-400mm lens.

One distinctive duck amongst the wigeons was this Pintail. (Heavily cropped photo).



At one point I thought I had startled the birds since a couple of hundred wigeons took off. I then noticed that circling above them were 3 or 4 raptors. I managed to get a reasonable shot of one of them. I believe this is an Osprey.



Samish Island and the Samish Flats didn't provide any opportunities. I did see a couple of raptors, a Northern Shrike, more Great Blue Herons, and Bald Eagles. Obviously none within decent range.

So it was back to Fir Island. I was lucky enough to catch an immature baldie as it swooped down from it's high perch and circled over another large flock of wigeons.





In the distance, a couple of Trumpeteer Swans flew by.



I'm fascinated by the behavior of the wigeons. There were large gatherings of them at Fir Island foraging for food. I would guess that at times there were upwards of 2000 thousand wigeons in the adjacent field. Periodically a group of 100-200 would suddenly erupt into the air. Sometimes they would fly off to another field. Other times they would just re-position themselves on the other side of the gathering. It definitely made me wonder what spurred these seemingly random outbursts.

Skagit, 1/19/09

We set out this day with the intention of re-visiting the Upper Skagit River area in search of Bald Eagles (again). We were hoping that a few days of warmer weather would have made the area a bit more accessible. We got started a bit later than I would have wanted but I felt guilty enough getting Wendy up early on a day off from work.

Unlike the last time I ventured up Highway 20 the road was open all the way to Rockport. There was one short stretch where it was down to a single lane of traffic. The road crews were still cleaning up landslides that had previously blocked the highway.

We made it up to Milepost 100 about 8:30am. As soon as we got we met a woman who seemed to have been up there a lot. She pointed out an eagle quite a ways out in the treeline across from the highway. We took a few minutes to check out the river but there wasn't any eagle activity at all. I was hoping this wouldn't be a repeat of my last visit.

We proceeded up Highway 20 to Milepost 101 and saw a couple of people looking across the river. Luckily there was a little cut in the hillside where we could pull off. The only place to stand was on the edge of the road right against the concrete barrier. Actually we were standing partially on the road since there wasn't much of a shoulder to speak off. A few vehicles passed by us but swung wide. Most slowed down trying to catch a glimpse of what we were looking at. I suspect that people are pretty tolerant of gawkers like us on the roadside.

This time we were a bit more successful. We saw 4 or 5 eagles on the far shore of the river. The closest was probably 150-200 yards away. Between the distance and the lingering fog, there wasn't a decent shot to take.

Our next stop was the hatchery at Marblemount. Just as we got near the fish ponds Wendy spotted a couple of eagles. We stopped and realized that there was a third bird off to the left. Finally we had a reasonably good shot with decent lighting. Here's a couple of shots of two of the birds that were sharing a tree.





For today, I decided to try shooting the 600mm lens on a tripod. This setup is definitely more stable and certainly more convenient than using the monopod once it's in position. The downside is the additional weight to carry around and the slower setup time. Wendy was using my 100-400mm zoom. After trying to handhold it, she opted to use it on a monopod.

While were shooting these eagles a hatchery person approached us. He pointed out the path to get to the river and off we went. There was a narrow path cut into the snow and as we got into the treeline, we spotted a couple of eagles above us.
We had to reposition a few times to find an angle that didn't have too many branches in the way.



A little further down the path and we made it to the river's edge. There were a few waterfowl in the area. This one looked pretty pissed off at our intrusion.



This one looks like she's singing. I think these are female Common Goldeneyes.








Not sure what this one was doing.



I think this is a female Barrow's Goldeneyes. My only clue is that it's bill is yellow as opposed to the dark bill of the Common Goldeneye.



This little bird put on a little show for us.



On our way back to the parking area we came across a small group of Common Mergansers





I'm not sure what this was but it was hanging around the Common Merganser gang. Maybe it's another Common Goldeneye.



We decided to head back south and just before Rockport we saw 3 or 4 cars pulled off the road. People were in a couple of groups looking over the edge. As we came upon one person we could see an immature eagle fairly close in. Unfortunately it was almost completely obscured by tree branches.

Moving over to the other group of people we saw a couple of eagles about 150 yards away. After a few shots, the mature eagle flew off and landed near us. This was
by far the closest we had been to such an impressive bird. The heavy vegetation made it difficult to get a clear shot. Below are some of my favorites. These are almost full-frame shots using the 600mm lens.







As it was getting close to noon, our plan was to grab a bite to eat and drive over to Padilla Bay. Unfortunately it was not to be. As we got closer to Burlington it became harder and harder to shift gears. A few times I had to turn off the engine to get the car into gear. We managed to limp into Burlington and had to have the car towed back to Everett. A disappointing end to a promising day. The upside was we did see more eagles, got some photos of birds we hadn't seen before, and we both got to practice with some different lenses.

Union Bay, 1/18/09

We had planned to head up to the Skagit on Monday so I decided to rent a big lens. I had initially wanted to try a 500mm, f/4 but Glaser's only had a 600mm, f/4 available. Since it was the same rental fee I thought "why not?" That lens is a beast! It's 12 pounds of metal and glass. The case for it was too big to fit in the trunk of my car.

A great thing about renting the lens for a Monday is that you can pick it up on Sunday and it doesn't need to be returned until Tuesday morning by 10am. So I loaded up the lens and headed out to the Union Bay Natural Area. As I made my way around the loop, another visitor pointed out a hawk high up in a tree.



Further along the trail as it comes up to the bay, I had to take the obligatory duck photo.



Out in the bay was a large flock of American Coots. A few seemed to be taking a break on a submerged log.



Amazingly enough the Red-Tailed Hawk I had seen earlier ended up in a short tree by the water. The bird was about 15 feet up. I was about 30 yards away trying not to spook it.




There are a couple of small ponds inside the loop trail. There were quite a few waterfowl swimming about. Here's a male and female Northern Shoveler were relatively close to the shore. They spent most of there time with their bills submerged and sifting for food.





Along with the Northern Shovelers were quite a few Buffleheads.



The Union Bay area is a fairly quiet place. The people walking the trails are careful to keep their voices down. You can hear some muffled traffic sounds on the nearby 520 floating bridge. However, when a flock of Canada Geese came in for a landing they announced themselves with a cacophony of honks. There's no mistaking their arrival. This is my favorite shot of the day.

Skagit, 1/14/09

The plan was to head up to the Upper Skagit River area to look for Bald Eagles. Unfortunately at the town of Concrete, Highway 20 was closed due to the landslides caused by the recent heavy rains. I backtracked along Highway 20 and explored a number of side-roads in hopes of getting access to the river. Some where dead ends; while others were choked with snow.

At one point I ended up at Rasar State Park but that too was too snow covered to get anywhere. On the way back to Highway 20 I came across this scene in the fog.



As long as I was in the area, I decied to check out the Skagit Flats for other photo oportunities. Luckily I had printed out information about a place called Fir Island.

As I pulled off Fir Island Road I saw an immature Bald Eagle just of the road, about 20 feet up. I managed a couple of shots before it flew off.



As expected there were large numbers of Snow Geese flying overhead.




At the end of the observation area was a Great Blue Heron meandering down a path. It moved deliberately back and forth across the path and I assumed it was stalking something for its next meal.




There were a number of Bald Eagles in the area both immature and adults. Unfortunately they stayed quite a ways out. Combined with the flat, gray lighting there weren't any opportunities to get a decent photo.

The best I could come up with is this heavily cropped shot of an eagle landing in the distance.



A bit closer was another heron. Again the flat lighting made for some uninteresting shots. However I did manage to catch the bird as it flew for a short distance. Here's the best of that sequence.



I threw together a quick 4 shot composite of the heron landing.


While I was at Fir Island, I met another photographer who had been up to the Upper Skagit the previous weekend. She told me was that there was a way around the road closure on Highway 20. The ironic thing was that I had been on the Sauk Road earlier that day when I was checking out the side-roads outside of Concrete.

Even though it was mid-day I decided to head back up Highway 20. I was indeed able to bypass the road closure and got up to Rockport by about 1:30pm. A number of places I tried were inaccessible because of the snow. I was able to pull off at the viewing area at Milepost 100. Here's what the muddy parking area looked like.

http://artandwendy.smugmug.com/photos/461566139_dFA8A-L.jpg


Unfortunately there wasn't much to see. I think the swollen river had made it hard for the eagles to hunt. Plus it was too late in the day. Except for a couple of ducks that buzzed by the only eagle visible was across the river in a high tree.