Wildlife

On a very wet weekend in early January, I was trying out a new lens a visiting the Samish Island wildlife reserve. These two juvenile bald eagles were fighting over something (probably a bit of fish) when the crow swooped in a stole it from them.

The lens, the XF200mmF2, is fabulous but very expensive, and I had rented it for a planned float trip on the Skagit river to photograph the bald eagles that winter there. Unfortunately, flooding caused numerous large trees to fall into the river, making it dangerous for small boats, so that trip was canceled, so I ended up here.

(Fujifilm X-H2, XF200mmF2 R LM OIS WR + 1.4x. teleconverter [280mm], ISO 160, f/2.8 @ 1/400”)

This little bird was foraging near the beach in Tofino, BC. It’s not often that I take wildlife photos with my phone camera, but sometimes it’s the only one available.

(Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, Back Triple Camera Lens, 15.7mm @ ISO 50, f/2.8 @ 1/250”)

We took a float trip down the Skagit river in December and encountered numerous bald eagles; they migrate here from northern Canada for the winter. This young eagle was drying its feathers, presumably after diving into the water to catch the salmon.

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF200mmF2 R LM OIS WR + 1.4X teleconverter, ISO 320, 280mm, 1/2500” @f2.8)

It was a good day on the Samish flats; I was leaving when I saw this heron out my car’s window. I stopped and the heron just kept on going; no idea why it was in such a hurry. But the setting sunlight was beautiful.

(Fujifilm X-H2, XF150-600F5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, 600mm @ ISO 4000, f/8.0 @ 1/800”)

I’ve posted photos of them before, but there’s a colony of great blue herons that nest at the wetlands behind the park-and-ride lot in Kenmore, WA, just north of lake Washington. It’s very close to my home, so I keep an eye on them while they’re here, usually from February-May (this photo was taken on February 12, 2023).

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF160-600MMF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, ISO 5000, 600mm, f/8.0 @ 1/1600”)

I’ve been spending a number of weekend days in the Samish Flats area of Skagit County. During the winter, there are enormous numbers of birds: bald eagles, osprey, great blue herons, snow geese, short-eared owls, various ducks, and a variety of hawks, including this one. On this morning, I investigated the dike next to the inlet of the Samish river, and this beautiful harrier flew almost directly overhead. Unlike most of my bird photos, this one is completely uncropped, meaning that the bird was much closer than usual to me.

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, 420mm, ISO 1600, f/7.1 @ 1/1600”)

There’s a farmer in this area that encourages owls by putting out nesting boxes in the fields, so there are often dozens of wildlife photographers out in the mornings. “Shorties” are diurnal, meaning that they’re awake and hunting during the day. They glide about on nearly silent wings looking for small animals (mice, vole) on the ground. When they see one, they plummet to the ground like this one is doing, hopefully coming up with a nice snack.

(Fujifilm X-H2, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, 600mm @ ISO 1000, f/8.0 @ 1/1600”)

The Samish Flats are an area of Skagit County, Washington, where the Samish river flows into Puget sound. It’s heavily agricultural and filled with birds during the winter: eagles, owls, and various hawks. I was actually taking a photograph of a heron in the marshes when this hawk landed on a power line behind me. An approaching car scared it into flight and I managed to capture this shot.

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS, 600mm @ ISO 2000, f/8.0 @ 1/1600”)

I spent the morning on the “Samish Flats,” the agricultural area around where the Samish river flows into Puget Sound, and which is full of migratory birds this time of year. I pulled over to the side of the road and saw this heron capture, kill, and swallow a small mammal (rat? vole?).

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 + 1.4X teleconverter, ISO 4000 @ 840mm, f/11 @ 1/500”)

At first I thought this was a short-eared owl based on the plumage and their behavior. But I’ve since become convinced that the upper bird is a Northern Harrier; it mimics the plumage of the short-eared owl, but it also tracks them as they’re hunting so they can swoop in a steal their prey.

(Fujifilm X-H2, XF200mmF2 R LM OIS WR + 1.4x teleconverter, 280mm, ISO 125, f/3.6 @ 1/400”)

Eagles are found near moving water, and this one was perched in a tree near the Skagit River.

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, 600mm @ ISO 3200, f/8.0 @ 1/340”)

After the eagle I was chasing flew off (it’s the large bird on the left of this image), I saw wave after wave of geese heading home for the night in the golden glow of the setting sun.

(Fujifilm X-H2S, XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, 600mm @ ISO 640, f/8.0 @ 1/500”)

Ma’ah (the name means “grandma” in the Tsimshian language) is one of the oldest and best-known of the spirit bears. She appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 2011. I was lucky enough to see her on a trek to the Great Bear Rainforest in northern British Columbia in September, 2019.

This was a terrifically difficult photo to make. Ma’ah was scanning the water for salmon, so her head was continually swinging back and forth. I needed a slow shutter speed to smooth out the water, and so I took about 40 shots before I got one where her head was still enough.

(Fujifilm X-T3 + XF50-140mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR, 50mm @ ISO 160, 1/2” @f16)

Another photograph from my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest. In autumn, the bears enter a state called hyperphagia where they consume as many calories as possible to help them gain body mass in preparation for the long winter hibernation. The salmon are heading upstream to spawn and thus provide an easy, nourishing source of those calories for the bears. We saw the bears walking up and down the river for hours each day, searching for easy-to-catch salmon.

(Fujifilm X-T3 + XF50-140mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR + 1.4X teleconverter, 196mm @ ISO 1250, 1/300” @ f4.0)

I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been able to see Ma’ah in person. In this photo, you can see her bloody nose after consuming salmon along the river.

(Fujifilm X-T3, XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR, 140mm @ ISO 500, 1/210 @ f/2.8)

This is a photo that I’ve passed by numerous times, but I’ve come to love the more I look at it. Ma’ah is, of course, the best-known of the Great Bear Rainforest’s spirit bears, having appeared on a National Geographic cover in 2011. She’s also one of the oldest bears; our guides were quite happy to see that she made it through the preceding winter but she’s around 20 years old and unlikely to live for much longer.

During my visit, she wandered up and down the river, intermittently catching salmon, gorging on them, and sleeping. I’m quite enamored of her pose and the lighting in this shot.

(Fujifilm X-T3, XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR, 196mm @ ISO 1250, 1/300 @ f/4)

Ran across this fellow as I was returning from my trek through the North Cascades yesterday. Managed to get one decent photo before he took off headed in the opposite direction.

(Fujifilm X-S10, XF70-300mmF4-5.6 R LM OIS WR, 300mm @ ISO 800, f/5.6 @ 1/450”)

We went on a bird-watching cruise from La Connor, WA, to Smith Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Smith Island is a protected habitat with numerous species including puffins. This guy had just caught a mouthful of fish.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS, 600mm @ ISO 100, f/6.3 @ 1/800”)

I attended a seminar on ethical wildlife photography presented by the North Cascades Institute, and the photographer mentioned finding owls in the “Skagit flats,” the area near where the Skagit river feeds in to Puget Sound. I headed up there one Saturday morning, and found this fellow swooping around the area, presumably searching for vermin for their breakfast.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS, 600mm @ ISO 4000, 1/500” @ f/6.3)

The herons nest in a rookery (heronry?) just north of Lake Washington behind the Kenmore, WA, Park’n’ride. This poor fellow didn’t have a mate…yet.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS, ISO 160 @ 600mm, f/6.3 @ 1/500)

In the early spring (February-April), the Great Blue Herons form a rookery in the wetlands immediately behind the Park’n’Ride in Kenmore, Washington, a small community near Seattle at the north end of Lake Washington. The herons build their nests, find mates, lay their eggs, and raise their young, departing to resume their “normal” life elsewhere.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS + 2x teleconverter, 1200mm @ ISO 800, f/13 @ 1/500)

Kenmore is a small community at the north end of Lake Washington, about 10 minutes from where I live. Their Park & Ride sits at the edge of a wildlife area that has become a nesting ground for Great Blue Herons. There are dozens of birds and, as of early March, they are all frantically collecting nest-building material in preparation for the Spring egg-laying season.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS, ISO 100 @ 400mm, 1/500” @ f5.6)

Bald eagles spend most of the year in British Columbia, but they migrate to northern Washington to spend the winters. For a few weeks, there are dozens or hundreds of these beautiful birds near the Skagit and Nooksack rivers.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS, 400mm @ ISO 100, 1/320 @ F7.1)

Bald eagles live most of the year in northern Canada; however, even that gets too cold for them so the migrate south to the sunnier climes of Washington state for the winter months. In particular, there are large concentrations of bald eagles on the Nooksack and Skagit rivers during late December through early February. I drove up to Rockport this morning (December 19) and was rewarded with dozens of birds feeding and swimming(!).

(Sony A7rIV, FE200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS, 600mm @ ISO 6400, f/6.3 @ 1/500”)

Bald eagles from northern Canada spend their winters in the warm, sunny climes of northern Washington state.

(Sony A7rIV + FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS, 400mm @ ISO 1250, 1/320” @ f7.1)

Seen in my backyard during a rare Pacific Northwest snowfall.

(Sony A7rIV, FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS + 2x teleconverter, 800mm @ ISO 160, 1/400 @ f/11)

There’s a wildlife viewing area (and “elk crossing”) just west of the town of Concrete, WA. If you arrive at the right time of day (this was taken shortly after sunset), you might be able to see the elk herd.

(Leica M10-R, APO-Summicron-M 1/2:0 90mm ASPH, ISO 3200, f/2.0 @ 1/180)