Photograph: Panasonic TZ5 (point and shoot), 15sec, f3.3, ISO100 On a Seattle night, with stars cloaked in stratocumlus clouds, when the only sight is a wisp of a rowing scull slithering under the University Bridge, the houseboats sit reflected and polished in the waters of Lake Union. I shot this near Eastlake, on Portage Bay,…
Too Much House, But Still Some Goose
In 1905, the Duwamish native Cheshiahud told The Seattle Times that he could no longer catch trout in Lake Union because “too much house now — they all gone.” 1. Seattle’s city-central lake was then known to the Duwamish as meman harsh, or “little lake,” surrounded by marshes and streams that fed both the lake…
From the Primordial Soup of Lake Union: American Coots
American Coots creep out of lakes like creatures of the bog, drawing up mud with their lobed toes as they march, single file, from the water to their feeding grounds. I once watched hundreds emerge, one by one, from the low-tide flats at San Leandro Marina in California, forming a line of black baubles from…
I’m Not a Birder … and I Also Love Canada Geese
Here’s the ‘condensed’ chronology of how I became that someone who is not a birder: Age 0 to 4: My first (and only) nanny was a German Shepherd. Also, age 0 to 4, born into a family of animal lovers and mushroom foragers. Age 5 to 13: Living as an expat in Europe, left to…
Under a Watchful Eye
Happy Mother’s Day! Canada Goose parent and goslings, photographed at Lake Union in Seattle, Washington.