If I had a photography motto it might be “follow the crows.” As sentries of the canopy, crows know what’s going on. So I pay attention. If it mattered at all to crows, they could tell me who shattered my car window last month and who stole our Christmas tree (with decorations) back in 1995….
Rorschach Heron
Great Blue in a single-wing stretch … reflected in Elliott Bay like an ink blot.
Gull Chicks and Gateway Birds
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to…
Clever, Corrugated Starlings
With starlings, I am often an outlier, even among people who share my conservation ethics and love for wildlife. That’s because I appreciate starlings in a way that defies conventional dislike for the species in the United States. I wrote about this in a 2009 post about European Starlings and their introduction to the U.S….
10,000 Crows and Counting
This is what it looks (and feels) like when you’re standing under 10,000+ crows, coming home to roost. I shot the video well after dusk, so I had to crank exposure up in iMovie, causing pixel issues. Still … you’ll get the idea. This occurs every dusk in Bothell, Washington, when crows from Seattle, Snohomish…
Return to the Mother Ship
This was a serendipitous capture … getting the two honey bees in a straight line, and in the same plane of focus. I was photographing a single, pollen-soaked bee when the other entered the frame and queued up behind. Whenever I see bees on a slow approach to sunflowers, I can’t help but think of…
Steam as Bird Backdrop
My affection for wildlife in urban and industrial settings brings me the subject of steam. There are obviously a lot of distracting elements in urban photography. Although I lean toward a photojournalistic style of realism when I encounter them, I also find it challenging to show the grit of these scenes while retaining some aesthetic…
If You Build It, the Eagles Will Come
We barely saw this sub-adult Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), hunkered down and camouflaged, in a tree above the trail at Union Bay Natural Area. I shot a few frames right before the sun fell below Husky Stadium to the south. At full extension, the eagle was still quite small in the frame, and the aggressive…
Parrots Directing Traffic
As my life in California drifts farther behind me, I’m given to fits of sentimentality … especially for the wildlife and wilderness we left behind. Among my emotional favorites are the wild parrots of San Francisco — actually, Red-masked Parakeets or Cherry-headed Conures. These are the celebrity birds featured in Mark Bittner’s The Wild Parrots…
These Feet are Made for Diving
Ducks have reason to be nervous around us humans in the winter, and diving ducks are always dive-ready if danger is imminent. Sometimes, I refrain from even pointing my lens at ducks, having learned that this act alone can be a stressor for them. Almost all flying ducks will divert course, even a little, when…
