PNWPhotos.com a friendly and growing community of photographers with an interest in the Pacific Northwest region.
We feature a Photography Discussion Forum and Pacific Northwest Photo Gallery. It's a fun and friendly place to talk with other photographers, ask questions, share you knowledge, view and post photos and more!
found my way to the Black River Riparian Area in Renton this afternoon. oddly enough, there's no "Black River" anywhere near... the stream that flows through this wetland is actually Springbrook Creek, which flows into the Green River. go figure. anyway, it's supposed to be home to one of the larger heron nesting grounds in the state, and i did see quite a few nests up in the trees, though none were occupied yet. the place isn't nearly as good for birds and waterfowl as Juanita Bay Park, but it does have the advantage of being only about 6 miles away instead of 20... anyway, here's a couple of shots of Mr Pintail out taking the air with the Missus... 40D, 400mm, 1/200 @ f/5.6, ISO 800 in the lousy light...
Nice shots. I've wondered where the Herons have gone to... Auburn was home to many blue herons for quite a while. Ironically, there presence was caused by the construction of Highway 18. That's right, caused by it. At the bottom of Peasley Canyon, where 18 meets 167, the construction created a swampy area that they loved. It had lots of dead trees that were great for nesting. It was quite common to see them flying around the area, and I even watched on clean out a neighbor's goldfish pond one afternoon. He'd swoop down, grab another fish, fly up to the roof and eat it, than head back to the "all you can eat sushi bar" for the next one. It was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
About 10 years ago, give or take, we had a devastating ice storm that took out a lot of trees in the canyon, including many of the dead ones. The Heron population doesn't seem nearly as prevelant these days, though I still occasionally see them.
Nice image of the two pintails together. The second one is a bit soft, either from cropping or needing a faster SS at the lnoger focal length.
Bob, eagles decimated the heron chicks at the Peasley Canyon site and the herons pretty much abandoned it in 1999. Too bad, as it was a good spot to view them and with a long lens you could also get to the edge of the bluff up by the cemetary ,there's a small park there, to look down into the nests. Hmmm, wasn't that also about the time the Super Mall was in full swing and wetlands were covered supposedly replaced to other areas??
Tony, this was a pretty long shot... the critters there aren't as accustomed to people as they are at Juanita Bay, so they stay a lot farther out. and, like you said, it's pretty serious crop, with NR applied to compensate for the high ISO... even at ISO 800, i could only manage 1/200, which gives you some idea how dim the light was...
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)
PNWPhotos.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com
