Bud Anderson's raptor banding location at Entiat Ridge was, for years, one of the best places to see raptors up-close. The expertise, the birds, the location, it was all a wonderful learning experience.
On one of those day-long expeditions, I was given the exquisite privilege of releasing a merlin back to its native skies. Cradling this later rendition of the dinosaurs in shaky hands, for about two minutes both of our hearts were beating like Tito Puente conga drums in an excited cha-cha.
Then, with a quick wingflit and nary a look back, the merlin was airborne and gone.
The photo here, which would look great on your computer's desktop screen, was taken about an hour earlier, a Sharp-shinned Hawk in the same situation with another visitor. Perhaps it is getting used to having new jewelry on its leg, or simply enjoying a silent moment before returning to the path that intersected ours for such a brief time.
Please feel free to download this photo for personal use on your computer's desktop. To download, just click once on the image, which will bring up the enlarged image on a new webpage. Then, right-click on the image and follow your operating system's instructions for pictures / images.
I hope you enjoy :)
[edited later to add:] I've been told the hand belongs to Sharon Ross... Thank you, Sharon, for the moment :)
This month's calendar shows a Wrinkled Hornbill eating what looks to be a fig or a dented grape. The photo was taken more than a few years ago, so given my advancing years (grin), I'm sorry I don't have a memorable story to tell.
Every year, Seafair and the Blue Angels come together in quite a spectacular way over Lake Washington.
The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle hosted for a number of summer seasons an exhibit called "Butterflies in Bloom."
I don't often get to Juanita Beach Park, though if I'm birding anywhere near Kirkland / Juanita, I'm almost always within one mile of the beach. Not sure what it is, even though JBeach sometimes acquires interesting migrants, such as the American Black Duck of recent years.
For the May Desktop Calendar photo, I harken back to the town of Landerneau, about as west as you can get in France, a blue-sky summer afternoon along the river which flows through the middle of town.
it's snowing. no, really. no rain, like last post (about thirty minutes ago). so, in that vein, i am posting an april desktop calendar image that hopefully reminds one and all that spring is possible in the puget sound.
Sometimes, photos simply appear out of thin air.
Pied-billed Grebe was photographed along the shoreline fronting David Brink Park, Kirkland.
