Hiking along the North Fork Skokomish trail in Olympic National Park, you never know that you might see. There are the occasional sightings of elk and bear (black bear, which typically run away) and lots of smaller birds. Sometimes you see grouse… often hearing them before being able to spot them in their camouflage. This one stayed around long enough for a photo op. These have always been blue grouse to me … but they are now called Sooty Grouse in some of my books. (or both)
I like to take photos of the little birds. I think the big birds (hawks, eagles, etc) get too much press. It’s easier to get close to a lot of small birds (but not all) and they don’t ask for royalties like some of their more famous kin. These were at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge outside Olympia, WA.
As you can tell by the snow in the background of image 1, this isn’t a photo from this week. But I was lucky to get both of these visitors to the same tree. I thought they made a nice couple. (although I didn’t care for the way a couple of them killed a birch tree in my front yard years ago, by girding the tree with their holes.
When I visited Haines, Alaska a couple times, I stayed in a small cabin close to the ferry terminal. As I was out for an after-dinner walk, I got this image of an old truck with one of the Alaska ferries in the distance. This is one of the smaller ferries that usually runs between towns, not the larger vessels that make the run from Bellingham, Washington.
The cabin had a number of grouse living in the yard. They were quite tame and I think were looking for handouts. I gave them a copy of my itinerary, but they didn’t seem interested in that type of handout.
Or, maybe it’s a Hairy Woodpecker. Still nice to have it visit my feeder.