I am still on a high from watching those eagles dip and dance in the sky! I strongly suggest you take the link to the Picasa slide show, turn it down (or speed it up) to 1-second intervals, and sit back - it’s almost like watching the movie. They love to fly in formation. Incredible!
Here’s the link again: Backyard Eagles
Update, June 22, 2008: I had to take out the full gallery - too many pictures! I was so excited at the time, I couldn’t pick just one - so I posted the majority of them and overloaded the system! If you’d like to see more eagle shots, please take the Picasa link below. Enjoy!
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Oh my gosh! There are about a dozen eagles in my backyard - right now - swooping over the neighbor’s field being mowed. They circle ominously overhead, they plunge to their prey, they fight with one another in the air. This is Sequim, Washington, not Haines, Alaska, where such vultures are commonplace. I am speechless. Mouse population = 0. Not a chance.
I just took about 150 photos. I have to stop now. I am out of breath.
(I did not have much luck with the slideshow feature - so I imported the gallery above. You may also go to my Picasa link HERE)
Hope you aren’t tired of pictures of Crescent Beach. Here are a few from the opposite side: from the water. Father’s Day was one of those opportunities when the sun came out, the yard work was well, not done, but enough for now, and hey - it was Father’s Day - time to take time to do something fun. For us, that means getting in kayaks or on surfboards.
We chose Crescent Beach because it offers options: a lot of sand for picnics, rocky tidepools for exploring, sometimes quiet waters for paddling, other times high waves for surfing, and always scenic beauty. The gray whales hang out nearby for several months out of the year, and we thought there might still be a chance to see them. Nothing like the smell of whale breath and knowing they could be anywhere beneath you to make you feel small! (No such luck today.)
Still a gorgeous day, however, with the water and sky of varying shades of deep green to blue, lots of reflections, and initially calm enough to take an underwater picture of kelp. As the wind came up, we kept an eye to the weather blowing in from west. The water turned a bit choppy with the incoming swell bouncing off the nearby cliffs.
No matter how often we paddle these waters, we always see something new: today, an interesting sea cave on the cliffs, almost perfectly round. We could not get close enough to look inside; too many jagged rocks guarding the shore. We did get close enough to see hundreds of white-winged scoters. If you look closely at the cliffs, you can see them sitting on little rocky ledges (you will have to click on the pictures to get a closer look). We thought they could be nesting, and because several of them tried to chase us off, we left.
The Olympic Mountains were spectacular from the water side - and not everyone gets to see Turtle Island from this angle. (Please excuse the water droplets on my camera case; by this time, the water was a little rough, so most of my pictures were at weird angles and blurry!) The tide was coming in quickly now, and the waves were picking up, so we had the chance to play in the waves and do a little kayak surfing on our way in. No pictures here - had to focus on staying upright!
It gave me a chance to test out my Pygmy kayak in the surf. I am a little over 5′ high and just over 100 lbs, so my husband built me the Arctic Tern 14′ craft. It is a thing of beauty. But so far, I have only paddled it in quiet waters. Although I have handled fairly rough seas in my past, I am by no means a surf acrobat. I was a little nervous about testing this little boat in anything too violent, because if anything the ocean does, it quickly helps you recognize your limitations and demands your respect. These little waves folding in close to shore were perfect, however. I am used to a heavier, larger (too large for me) boat, so having something that was light enough to be tossed around a bit by the waves was a bit surprising at first until I got used to how it also responded immediately to my weight shifts, leans, and low braces. Very fun! Very maneuverable. It lives up to its name and reputation.
A great paddle; a great Father’s day; and a very special father in our family. We are so fortunate to be able to have these kinds of mini-adventures together! A great reminder: if we’re too busy thinking about getting a life, we’re not living it. Appreciate what we have; appreciate the time we have together; love one another. Look for the beauty in the world around us. Life is a gift! Live with gratitude.
The fun thing about the Salt Creek / Crescent Beach area on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, is that it is such a great place for kids. Low tide will stretch the beach beyond Turtle Island, which is an ideal place to look for buried treasure or find critters in tidepools. Watch out, though! When the tide comes in, the island is surrounded by crashing waves!
Other fun things to do:
We launched our boats close to home in Dungeness Bay, bordered by the Dungeness Spit, the longest natural spit in the world, held together by 10 miles of driftwood, and guarded by the Dungeness Lighthouse and a wide assortment of birds, seals, and even an occasional coyote and sea lion. My husband built our boats: his, a Pygmy Coho, and mine, a Pygmy Arctic Tern14.
Rather uneventful, as kayak paddles go, but exhilarating to get back on the water, feel the wind on our faces, and listen to the gentle swishing of the paddles through the water. We compensated for a slightly sideways drift with the current of a strong outgoing tide and took our time getting to the spit. We could hear the surf on the other side, sometimes glimpsing the spray of a wave that splashed above the height of drifted logs. The lighthouse blinked at us in the distance.
Not many birds out today, but we did see numerous buffleheads, a few merganzers, a cormorant or two, some scoters, and several others. A gull sat watch on a sign declaring the area protected. People are still allowed to hike the beach to the lighthouse, but few were out wandering on this monotone gray day that threatened to quickly change into something blustery.
As the heavy clouds moved in, we headed back. A couple of seals watched us leave, ducking out of the viewfinder of my camera. All in all, a low-impact, easy-going paddle that made us appreciate how fortunate we are to live where we do.
It’s that time of year: the elk are on the move, the eagles are seeking their mates, the snow geese have returned and gather in the fields.
I managed to sneek up on the Roosevelt elk herd that lives on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. The males are just now growing their antlers, which can weigh up to 40 pounds. An adult male can weigh up to 1000 pounds. Don’t get in their way!
One would think these huge males would be the leaders of the herd. Not true! The dominant cows determine when and where the herd moves.
In the fall, during rutting season, the males are known to “bugle,” which if you’ve never heard it, is a very strange sound. We were camping one year up on Mount Rainier and thought sure we were surrounded by Sasquatch!
We don’t see many Trumpeter swans here on the Olympic Peninsula; it is always a treat to see this magnificent bird that can stand 4 feet high and has a wingspan up to 7 feet! In the Skagit Valley, it’s not uncommon to see thousands of white birds in the fields - most of them snow geese, mixed with the swans.
The sun seemed to warm the field of this barn today. I tried to capture an eagle in his lookout in a barren tree - but he took off just as I snapped the picture. He was the one that got away!
What a spectacular lunar eclipse! The clouds parted long enough for us to watch it in its entirety. I set up an amateur telescope to get a better look, which was somewhat challenging. It is difficult to find the moon within the viewfinder - and then the slightest jar points it somewhere into outer space, and of course, everything is upside down and backwards, so you have to take that into account in finding the moon again!
So I set up my camera in an attempt to capture the eclipse in all its drama. I am no pro - but by using a 300 mm lens, a 30-sec exposure, an ISO of 1600 - and then setting the time release to minimize shake, this is what I got. Ok - so it doesn’t look like the eclipse - but it IS rather strange, no?
February doldrums! It’s that time of year when even the agnostic among us start praying for a little warmth and sunshine!
I used to live in Alaska. It’s the kind of thing I can’t wait to tell my grandchildren, that I lived in a 1-room log cabin with no electricity or running water except for the river outside my door. Moose grazed the willows right beneath the windows, I made sure I could shoot a gun in case any hungry bears awakened from hibernation, and I cross-country skied to work. We lived in a gully, so what little sun there was in the winter disappeared that much earlier. It was that darkness, more than the cold, that could drive a person to do crazy things under the influence of “cabin fever.”
Now we live on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. Cabin fever takes a slightly different form. The moss and mold is known to grow between our toes and the wind blows hard and the rain rains and rains and rains. There is no escape. February is the worst. It’s the month when even the most weathered have to “get out” - no matter what it’s doing out there.
Today, however, was an incredible day. The sun was out in rare full glory, and the mountains, brightened with white, were absolutely spectacular. The sun was at just the right angle to illuminate the moss hanging from the trees. The moss carpeting the river rocks, when examined closely, were covered with tiny hairs. I came across a family of deer, a buck, doe, and a yearling, who were ambling casually along the shore of a lake, also enjoying this rare break between storms. We must be on the verge of spring!
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