More of the usual...birds, dog, art

These first pics are from a few days ago -- Truman and I went to the Montlake Fill last Thursday on one of the few sunny days we've had here of late.

I saw a bird fly up to the top of a small tree and thought at first it was a lighter-than-usual Song Sparrow, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a lovely Lincoln's Sparrow, which visit us only in Winter:

In the alder grove I saw this Bewick's Wren, which presented a silhouette due to being backlit:

The rest of the birds (we had 27 species that morning) declined to have their photos taken.  Truman, however, was happy to pose by Shoveler's Pond:

We stopped by the slough:

And a little later on, Truman posed again to make up for the lack of cooperative birds:

This next photo is from last Sunday, when I tried to watch the Seahawks playoff game, and decided it was too painful.  So I turned the sound down and distracted myself by sketching this barn from a photo I'd taken up in the Skagit:

And this last photo is also from Sunday, which was a bit rainy.  Truman and I went for a short walk during a break in the rain, and here he is right after we returned, back in  his favorite spot:

I think he is wondering why I am annoyed at the television set, where the football game is still playing.  All I can say about that is, "I miss baseball!"

Birds and Dogs at Magnuson Park

Here are some photos from over a week ago that got put aside due to the fabulous Skagit Valley adventure.

Winston and Truman visited Magnuson Park, and kindly brought their humans along.  It was a lovely morning:

We spotted this hybrid Mallard hanging out with the plain old Mallards:

Winston and Truman enjoy the promenade:

Here is a Common Goldeneye out on the lake:

We encountered a flock of wigeons on the grass.  Truman wanted to avoid them, while Winston was determined to give chase.  The wigeons were having none of it.

Here we see a pair of Lesser Scaup:

There was a Cooper's Hawk fanning its feathers -- I swear I've never seen a Cooper's doing this in the entire eight years I've been birding, yet in the space of one week, I had two different hawks fanning their feathers like this in two different locations.  Go figure.

Winston and Truman wanted to know why I kept stopping to take photos.  The point of a walk, after all, is to walk.  So we did, and that was that!

A Foggy Morning

I snapped these photos a week ago Saturday -- I waited to post them on the theory that the Skagit pics were much more interesting.

On this week-ago Saturday, the sun was shining and the skies were perfectly blue over my neighborhood, so I hopped in the car and tootled down to the Fill...a mere four and a half miles away...to find this:

It was not sunny.  There were no blue skies.  Not exactly good birding conditions.  Oh, well.  I decided on a brisk walk around the Loop Trail during which I would take pictures of Foggy Stuff instead of birds.

Truman decided early on that the Fog and the Cold were Not to His Liking, and that he preferred to ride in his limo.

Here is a spot known as East Point.  It is a Point because  it sticks out into Lake Washington.  Yes, there is a lake out there just beyond the foggy trees.  Somewhere.  Honest.

See?  Here it is!  A foggy lake with a foggy log with a foggy cormorant adorning it:

Here is Truman admiring the foggy Southwest Pond:

You can actually see the water in this one.

When we drove home, we discovered that the blanket of fog had spread all the way back to our neighborhood.

What we need is a weather webcam at the Montlake Fill, so if it is sunny and clear at my home, I can check to see if it is sunny and clear at the Fill before I head off.

Happy Friday to those of you who are still working!

A Fine Day in the Skagit: Conclusion

Our last stop on the Skagit Valley birding and photography outing last Sunday was "the West 90", a spot known to birders as a good place to see Short-eared Owls.  It's pretty much the fields around where Bayview-Edison Road meets Samish Island Road.

As we drove along Bayview-Edison, we pulled over for another flock of Dunlin:

And just to admire the views:

A Rough-legged Hawk turned up, flying from telephone pole to pole.

Then it flew far away -- and I managed to get a shot with the mountains in the background:

At the Samish Island Road junction, we parked, got out, walked about twenty feet out to view the fields, and a Short-eared Owl immediately turned up.  Very accommodating!  Though it stayed far off, and never came in close enough for a clear photograph.  So here are the blurry "zoomed out as far as my souped-up little point-and-shoot can go" shots:

Finally, we got a bonus bird -- a Northern Shrike flew in and landed on a fence post, posing ever so nicely:

Sweet!

We admired the views a bit more....

...and then we headed back to Seattle.  It was a long day (9-4!), a full day, and a fabulous day of great birds, beautiful scenery and perfect weather.  We can't wait to get back up there!

A Break from the Birds (though still in the Skagit Valley)

After lunch last Sunday, Tina and I explored the tiny town of Edison (2010 population: 133), a one-intersection town that somehow manages to support several quirky gift shops, a bakery, an art gallery and custom woodcraft shop, a wine/cheese place, and a cafe that serves things like chile rellenos with manchego cheese wrapped in prosciutto.  Seriously?  How do these businesses survive?

The first place we went into had jewelry, clothes, dishware, soaps, oils/perfumes etc, and lovely brick walls:

It wasn't that quirky of a shop because at least I could describe its wares.  That wasn't the case in the second shop -- I told my mother that I couldn't describe some of the weird stuff we found in these places, and you can see why here:

The best I can do is "odd decorative artsy stuff with natural elements".

The next place was pretty much the same:

This shop owner sells stuff from many local artists -- I'm thinking "local" must include all of the Skagit Valley and then some.

I resisted buying anything here, though I did find this winged unicorn giraffe attractive:

Then there were these things -- I think they're supposed to be vases.  I'm not sure.  The shop was full of things that, as I said, were difficult to describe:

The shop owner was busy working at a vintage sewing machine, stitching old maps together into customer shopping bags.  Go figure.

He said that hundreds of maps were left behind by the building's previous tenant, a mineralogist, and now they are being put to creative use.

We also looked in on the art gallery (very high quality paintings and wood carvings), and peeked in the bakery and cafe.  Smack dab in the middle of all these artsy places stood a bar where several leather-clad bikers (of the motorcycle, not bicycle variety) stood about smoking.  Quite the contrast.

One of the shop owners told us that all these places started up around ten years ago, and seem to be doing well off the weekend tourist trade.  According to the 2010 census, the average household income was $50,000 and no one in all of Edison lived below the poverty line.  So I guess they're doing okay.  If you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth a look.

A Fine Day in the Skagit Valley, part 2

While viewing the shorebirds in the Skagit Valley on Sunday, I spoke with another birder who had been out since dawn.  He had seen only small Snow Geese flocks scattered about the farm fields.  Tina and I headed down Best Road, then Moore Road, randomly driving up and down along the fields looking for white blobs.

We found a dozen or so Trumpeter Swans in a field, and stopped to take pictures of more swans flying in to join them.

We also took note of dilapidated barns, with a view to sketching them on a return trip in summer.

The only Snow Geese we saw all day flew in to a field far far away.  We drove around looking for closer access, without success.

So we had to be satisfied with whatever birds happened to be closer in:

You couldn't throw a stick without hitting an eagle or a hawk on a tree or a telephone pole (not, of course, that you'd want to hit one....).

Next, we headed farther north to the town of Edison (2010 census population: 133).  We ate lunch at the Edison Cafe, and then checked out the river across the street from the cafe.  Beautiful spot:

I spotted a dove fly up into a tree here:

As you can see in this photo, it was a Eurasian Collared Dove.

We noticed a "main street" of two blocks or so in bustling downtown Edison which looked interesting, so we stopped there to explore.  Turns out this tiny town has quite the quirky shopping experience.  Who knew artsy boutique stores and wine/cheese shops could survive in a one-horse town?

Well, apparently they can -- stay tuned tomorrow for a break from the birds and a visit to the unusual stores of Edison, WA.