Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
Here are more seagulls on the wing. They’re doing fly-bys as a man on the bluff throws bread, which they catch midair. I like the play of light and shadow.
People here regularly throw bread to the seagulls. Gulls are world class scavengers and I doubt that they would go hungry without handouts. But I’m not sure human bread constitutes a healthy diet.
We happened upon a man feeding seagulls at the bluffs the other day. I pulled out my camera and caught some of the action.
I liked the play of light on their feathers and hadn’t truly appreciated the beauty of their flight before. I’ll post more tomorrow.
The light on this old apple tree near Sunny Farms caught my eye recently. As I tried to capture what I saw a crow arrived to eat an early dinner.
Here is a female northern harrier (Circus cyaneus) looking for dinner. Like other raptors, their beaks are hooked and they have strong legs and sharp talons. Members of this bird family, Accipitridae, have eyesight that is four to eight times better than that of humans. Notice how the long, narrow outer primary feathers on the wing to the right separate into “fingers.” These “fingers” allow birds to fly at lower speeds without stalling.
By coincidence my posts for the rest of this week are all about birds. Check in for more shots of feathered friends.
We pulled out the bird books and my husband and I concluded that these are probably cormorants. Real birders are welcome to dispute this.
What’s not to like about staying next door to a national wildlife refuge? The New Dungeness Light Station borders on the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge that is visited by over 250 species of birds, 41 species of land mammals, and eight species of marine mammals. We regularly saw three eagles that ranged about on the south side of the Light Station grounds and I was told by one volunteer that sightings can range up to a dozen at a time. Not too shabby!
The wildlife seems to know the boundaries of the Light Station and generally kept well beyond the signs that keep visitors out of the 631 acre refuge. Our best sightings were airborne.
There are two favored perches beyond the boundaries of the light station, both of which made me envy the 400 mm. lenses of friends.
Our bird house residents are long gone and there isn’t a waiting line for the birdbath anymore. The Canada geese are just about history for this year, too.