Rain or Shine, Sleet or Snow...

Just when I thought spring was on its way, we get hit with a monsterous snowstorm. Today, the snow was especially thick with huge flakes coming down. I could not see the island or the cabins across the bay. Through the snowstorm, I could see our favorite fish pen attendant, the Great Blue Heron. A daily visitor come rain or shine, sleet or snow, the heron sits quietly for hours on end, waiting for his opportunity to snap up a fish or two. Shortly after I took this video, he caught a fish! Every time I see a heron swallow a fish, I wonder how that would feel, with that fish swishing around in your stomach? How long do you think it takes for the fish to quit flopping around? And how does it feel to poop out those fish bones? Yikes!



So here I sit, dreaming of springtime, when I can get out in the neighborhood and really enjoy my new camera. Meanwhile, I am having fun with my new iPhone, hanging with my favorite pets, Boof, Cubby and Stan. Next week Cub & Boof go in for their shots. That should be fun.

The Moose Rescue Video

A couple of years ago, my husband and lake neighbors saved a mamma moose who had fallen through the frozen ice on the lake. I mentioned it in an earlier blog. I had posted a video of the rescue on YouTube, and occassionally will get a comment on it. Out of the blue, I get an email yesterday from a TV producer from the UK (Southern England). They produce a series called "Real Rescues" and are wanting to start a new series about animal rescues. They would like to use my moose rescue video for their program. After thinking, "Is this for real"?, I checked out the company, confirmed their validity and emailed back the gal. She assured me it was legit. The program is still in its early stages, but she said if the budget allowed, they might even come interview us. They want all of the footage that I have, which includes video of the baby calf that was with the mamma moose that day.

Anyways, it's kind of exciting! If you haven't had a chance to see the incredible footage (and even if you have), be sure to check it out!

Walk This Way...

My friendly neighborhood Great Blue Heron was helping me test out the video capabilities on my new camera. Figured out right away, that the settings were not right. Next time I will shoot at a higher speed. This one looks like it's in slow motion and a bit jerky. But, I still love this video of the Great Blue Heron walking on the ice to the fish pen. They are so graceful! If only I could figure out how to get some still photos from this clip of the heron creeping around the edge of the fish pen.
OK, so I tried and tried to upload the video, but it is 9MB's too large! Wahhh! I don't have a way to edit it and keep it in an uploadable format.

Mid-winter Blues

I don't know about you, but I've had about enough of winter. Spring has been on my mind lately. Ice covers the ground and the lake. Well, almost all of the lake. The neighborhood fish pen stays unfrozen, as they keep the water moving inside the pen. So like I've said before, there is a Belted Kingfisher that hangs out at the fish pen, and catches a snack or two every day. Now the last couple of days, we have a new visitor to the fish pen... a Great Blue Heron! It's an unusual time of year to see one of these magnificant birds here on the lake. I am loving the added wildlife and birds that have been attracted by the fish pen. If you haven't already, check out the otter that visited before the ice took over the lake in my earlier blog. This Great Blue Heron spends hours patiently waiting on the ledge of the fish pen. And I have spent quite some time patiently waiting for the heron to do something exciting like catch a fish! I have seen it about to strike, but then doesn't. I couldn't get quite close enough on my balcony to get a decent shot, so I decided today to get my boots on, and some warm clothes and head outside with my camera and tripod. Now this is quite the feat, because it is very icy around my house, and now we have a new cover of snow, so it's hard to see where exactly the ice is. So I grab my ski-pole, and head out with my gear. Unfortunely, the little dog gets out when I open the door to get my tripod through. Darn it, I didn't want the dog to scare the bird. But I continue on my task, and head across the icy ground and sneak behind the bushes and hide behind a boat house on the beach. Here I set up my tri-pod and get all focused in on my special winter visitor. I snap a couple shots. Maybe half a dozen, and our big dog comes to see what's up. Oh hello! I see you are trying to photograph that big bird over there... Let me help by running out on the ice and scaring him off! Do you think I might have been lucky enough to get a flight shot? No, no, no. I was in the middle of saving a 7-shot series, and missed the window of opportunity. Thanks doggy!

Well, at least the shots were a little better than the ones way up from my balcony. I still plan to stalk this fella to get a better shot. Would be nice if the weather wasn't quite so gloomy!

After the dogs had scared away my chances of getting any more heron pictures for the time being, I still wanted to take advantage of being out in the snow in the woods. So I set up my tripod on the patio and decided to get a few shots of the Red-breasted nuthatches that were at my suet feeders. There were 4 of them there at one time, how fun! Do you think I could get a shot of them, before little dog, and his Unlce kitty ran over to the tree and off went the nuthatches. Next time I will have to be more careful about the pets getting outside! But hey, they were excited about the bird visitors too! Little dog barks at the birds when he sees them outside. All is not lost, there is a Song Sparrow that has been in the gang with the nuthatches, and it is still in the bushes. I take a couple of crappy shots of it, before I hear a Raven overhead bickering at it's partner. This causes the Song Sparrow to freeze and hide behind the branches for a couple of minutes or more. The Raven takes off, and down the tree comes a Downy Woodpecker. They seem to hang with the nuthatches and the sparrow, all of them coming to the feeders at the same time. I am happy to be on the patio, with the tripod and the camera all ready to go. Didn't last long with my friends the pets outside. Oh well, it was an adventure that I enjoyed. Got me out of the house, and was good for the winter blues.

New Camera

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I sure did! Santa brought me a brand new superzoom camera! The Fuji Finepix HS10 with a 30x zoom lens (up to 720mm). Great for birding! I couldn't wait to get a shot at the Belted Kingfisher that has been hanging daily at the local fish pen. My old camera just didn't have enough zoom to get in as close as I'd like. But with this new camera, I was sure to get up close. Today, I look down at the fishpen to see if my buddy was there, and what do I see? The fishpen has collapsed! The frame and netting above water level had fallen. Then this afternoon, I see two guys in a canoe, paddling with snow shovels while they broke the ice around the fish pen. That's something I'd never seen before, canoeing with snow shovels! They were able to get the frame off of the pen for repairs. So I'm wondering where my kingfisher friend is today? Then I see him, perched on our dock on the high dive frame. He loves that spot, but has been favoring the fish pen lately. With the fish pen in repair, his roosting spot was gone! Good for me though, because he is now much closer, and a perfect scene for my new camera!!! I rush to get it, and am happy to snap a few photos of my friend. I haven't ventured outside of the Auto mode with scene recognition. But after I got a few shots, I decided to try the multiple shot mode. Boy, oh boy, did it shoot 7 shots quicker than spit! Then I tried the mode that shoots 3 shots at closer zoom each time. I think I'm gonna like that mode. Since we are in the middle of a snow storm, almost blizzard conditions at times, my pictures weren't as clear as I would have liked. But they are certainly the closest shots I've ever gotten of a Belted Kingfisher!

Thanksgiving is over!

Now the turkey's show up!

We haven't had the turkeys here for a couple of years. But they used to roost in the neighbors cedar trees, and roam the beach daily. I'm glad to see them back. The turkeys and other birds will come up on my patio. Sometimes I'll throw my cockatiel Dixie Chick's left over seeds outside in the winter, so of course they love that. My cat Stanley Oliver loves to stalk the turkeys. They act like they couldn't care less if Stan was there. Here is a picture of him taken a couple of years ago by my friend Jeannie. Stan was hanging with the gang of turkeys... I call it Turkat...

Also hanging with the turkeys, are a covey of quail. Such sweet little birds. I always hear them before I see them. Every time I'm like... what strange bird is that I hear? Only to discover the quail nearby. They make such sweet little birdie noises. I love the little bobble on their heads, although I think only the males may have them. Nope, just looked it up, and the females have a small plume, the males a larger plume and black faces with white. Here is a male, that I just took today.

Here is my favorite of my quail pictures. I shot this in the parking lot of Shopko, believe it or not! Doesn't the weather look fabulous??

Today while I was fixing myself a little lunch, I heard a loud tap, tap, tap outside. Sounded like it might be a woodpecker under the eaves of the house. The Red-shafted Flickers have been hanging around lately. Never have I heard them tapping at my eaves here at this house, but when we used to live in Poulsbo, Washington, they roosted on the edge of my window and sometimes peck at the house. We were renters back then, so didn't care if they wrecked the eaves. But now, we are in our forever house, I really don't want them ruining it. My friend Jana hates the flickers for just that reason! I have a hard time hating them, cause they were one of the first birds that got me interested in birdwatching. And it was because of them roosting on my window. I had to know what these birds were! The other birds that peaked my interest was the Pileated Woodpecker. The big Woody Woodpecker kind. I'm working on getting a decent picture of a flicker to share.

Winter Visitors

Female Hairy Woodpecker

I hadn't had any decent bird adventures for quite some time, but since we've had snow, things seem to be getting busy! I had a great sighting today, but unfortunately no pictures to share. Just a binocular's view away, across the bay, a fairly large dark bird was flying around and caught my eye. When it landed in a snowy pine tree, I immediately got my binoculars out, and searched the branches until I found it. It was difficult to decipher what it was. For awhile, I thought it might be an owl, wishful thinking I'm sure. After staring at it til my eyes were buggy, and searching in one of my favorite bird books (Stokes Field Guide to Birds - Western Region), I identified it to be a juvenile Bald Eagle. No white head or tail, but definately an Bald Eagle. They keep their immature plumage for up to 4 years. The young eagle roosted in the pine tree for at least an hour or so. I was disappointed that I didn't see it fly off.

Another visitor, that has been spending quite a bit of time around here, is a Belted Kingfisher. I love these short squatty, noisy fishing birds! Every since our neighbors volunteered to host the fish pen on their dock for the winter, the kingfisher can be seen several times a day, perched atop the fish pen. Every once in a while, he will dive down through the gaps in the netting at the top, and catch himself a snack fish. I am certain there will not be 10,000 trout to let loose next May!

This was taken several weeks ago, before the snow came.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed something on our skidock rolling around in the snow and playing on the dock. At first, I thought it had to be a muskrat, but it just didn't fit. Muskrats aren't that big, and they don't play like that. They swim in a straight line, and duck under the docks. Not get out and do somersaults on them. Beau thought it looked like a weasel. I thought it looked like a little sea lion. When my husband got home from work, and we told him about the 'muskrat', he looked outside and there it was again! He was convinced it was an otter. After looking online, for sure, it was an otter. Certainly, the critter was visiting the fish pen too! I haven't seen him now for a few days, but he was here on and off for a week or more. I did manage to get a distant picture and some video.

Once the ice forms on the lake, I will miss all of my duck friends. I am amazed at how many types of ducks come in the fall and winter before the ice hits. There have been a pair of male Common Mergansers in the bay this last week. One day I saw a large duck roosting on the snow on the ski dock. When I looked in the binoculars, I thought perhaps there was another smaller duck on the edge of the dock, and snuggled up with this larger duck. But the detail in the pictures showed it was just the merganser and the 'smaller duck' was it's tail. You don't normally see the tail when they are in the water swimming. They really are a beautiful duck.

Christmas is on it's way... on my wish list is a DSLR camera. My old 4 megapixel FujiFilm camera needs upgraded badly! Sure hope Santa comes through for me!