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Hiking with Sky

We got out in the mountains this past week for a really pleasant hike. The air was cool and fresh. It wasn’t windy which was a mixed blessing. In some places, the mosquitoes were quite annoying but they thinned out after we got above the trees. Clark’s Nutcrackers were everywhere and Horned Larks were singing from lots of rocky perches. Ladybugs were emerging from the rocks and once again I wonder, what do they do all winter? Sky found a stick and she posed, on her own, in front of an old growth juniper, for a portrait. And the clouds were amazing! Fog filled the valleys to the north and east, eliminating half the views but it would pour up over the ridge line making outstanding aerial displays! We found big piles of black bear poop. I wonder what it was eating? The snow only recently melted so there were few flowers. We will have to return soon! With the warm weather, they will pop out in a hurry.

Loons

I photographed this pair last month when they were still on a nest. Presumably, at that time they had one or two eggs and since then someone did see them with one youngster. However when we were there recently, there were no babies. A Bald Eagle probably took them. It’s hard work to raise kids.

In the first photo, I thought the bird was sleeping but on closer inspection, you can see the red eye watching me. Both birds were resting in the middle of the lake so I moved on in my kayak, looking at other birds and enjoying the day. I paddled back into a marshy area where I often see Ring-necked Ducks and American Coots and if I’m lucky, I get good views of tiny warblers too. This time I found both Common Loons in the shallow water. I kept my boat as still as possible and they both approached me, diving often and popping up in front or behind me. It was exciting to watch them underwater! They never seemed to come up with food so I don’t know what they were doing except maybe showing off? They did not appear distressed and they did not make any calls. They were very interested in a patch of cattails and I wondered if it was even possible that they had a little one stashed in there, hidden from danger but I never saw any movement in the vegetation. Perhaps they were just enjoying a rare sunny spell.

Most of these images are not cropped, shot with a 200-500 mm lens from my boat.

More Birds

From our recent camping trip.

Song Sparrows. Yellow-headed Blackbird. Mountain Bluebird with food for a nest full of little ones. Elegant Black Tern. Ring-necked Duck.

Ducks in a Row

Another lake, another Hooded Merganser, this one with a big family to care for.

Preening her Feathers

I love birding from a boat. Especially a human-powered boat like my kayak. On quiet water, the boat moves silently and smoothly and many birds are not disturbed by its presence. I still have to be quiet and move slowly and when I do it all right, I might get the opportunity to watch and photograph birds up close. Well, up close with a telephoto lens!

This female Hooded Merganser was pretty relaxed and let me watch her as she preened her feathers on a floating log near shore. After a while she decided, enough was enough, and flew away. She may have had a nest to tend somewhere around the lake.