Dogs
In early March it was fun following the famous dog sled race in Alaska known as the Iditarod. The 848-mile race took place starting March 7 in Deshka Landing and the winner, Dallas Seavey, crossed the finish line, on March 15, after 7d 14h 8m 57s. I followed the race on Iditarod.com
One of the joys of following the race this year was finding Dave Poyzer's photography. I sent an email to Dave and asked if I could share some of his photos here on John's Island. Dave gave me permission and thank you Dave!
All of the following Iditarod photography is by Dave Poyzer (Production Manager & Director of Photography at Canoe There). Click on images for larger view. If you enjoy these photos be sure to check out Dave's website to see many, many more!
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Photography by Dave Poyzer |
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| Many thanks to David Poyzer. Check out his website! |
Birds
My fascination with hummingbirds continues. I've kept the feeders clean and fresh all winter and have had multiple hummers daily. All of them have been the species known as Anna's Hummingbirds. It's a challenge to distinguish one hummer from another in the same species. So, I don't really know how many birds I've seen over the last several months. Activity has picked up quite a bit since the weather has warmed up the last few weeks. Now that so many flowers are in bloom I'm happy that they have access to food beyond the feeders. There were many days in March when I picked up the camera and waited on the deck to capture a few shots of the hummers. Patience is a virtue but it rarely takes more than 5 minutes for a bird to show up to dine at the feeders. Getting the right amount of sunlight on the birds has been one of the biggest challenges. At my location, getting direct sun on the feeders only starts in the afternoon and from then until sunset the sun moves through the western sky. The feeders hang on the western edge of the deck so you can see the backlighting issue. Below are a few captures from March.
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| The easiest time of day to catch hummers at the feeder is around sunset. They must bulk up on food for the night when there will be no feeding. |
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| Sometimes the birds feed and then just sit still for several seconds as if in thought ... how much shall I eat? 😊 |
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| Hummer activity seems greater on clear sky days. |
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| Finally, I caught two on the feeder at the same time. This is rare because hummers are not normally happy to share. |
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| This little one would dip into the feeder and then take a look back to check on me. Over and over. The "experts" say the birds do recognize humans. |
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| I included this shot with a question: How about the bulge right below the hummer's neck. It looks about the right size for a egg. But, if an egg, it seems like it should be lower in the body. What do you think? |
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| For this and the next few shots I put the camera in macro and actually stood right by the feeder. The hummers did not seem afraid of me. |
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| While you can see the iridescent red feathers ... the light has to be just right. Note the same bird in the next photo. |
Skies
Recent sky views ...
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| Giant storm cloud moving over Puget Sound March 9 |
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| Sunset almost exactly due west on a clear sky day. |
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| Trying the "creative" setting on the Canon camera. The colors are false, of course, but kind of interesting. March 11 |
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| Similar to the previous shot but with natural colors. March 12 |
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| Thin layer of clouds made the sun look huge. March 27 |
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| NYK Line "RoRo" This is a roll-on, roll off vessel probably carrying cars. Most of the RoRo vessels look like this ... sort of a fat ship. |
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| Not an unusual scene as the ferry crosses between Seattle and Bainbridge Island multiple times daily. I liked this one out there all by itself near sunset. I often wonder what it would be like to have a ferry ride as a frequent part of your daily routine. |
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| A bulk carrier arriving in Seattle |
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| Easy to ID with the colors of the containers. This tug is towing a barge of freight from Alaska. Alaska Marine Lines containers all have a give-away green color. I often wonder what it would be like to be the tug Captain on this voyage. Boring or just plain fun? |
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| A TOTE RoRo northbound in Puget Sound. Enroute to Alaska? Tote Maritime website |
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| Hapag-Lloyd departing Seattle. Unusually small load of containers. There is currently a global container shortage. |
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| Another RoRo southbound, probably to Tacoma, WA |
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| This load of crushed vehicles on a barge looked strange. Close up below. This was coming into Seattle so I wondered where it came from and where the salvage will go. |
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| Smaller Crowley tug is towing big one ... the NANUQ See link below for information about the Nanuq. Possibly being towed into Seattle for repairs? The Nanuq was designed to move tankers around oil facilities in Alaska. March 30 |
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| Closer look at the small tug |
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| Huge Crowley tug NANUQ |
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| Tugboat Information website Read about Nanuq on the Tugboat Info website. What would I do without the World Wide Web? |
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| Red Zed 1 arriving Seattle March 29 Very unusual vessel caught my attention. Red Zed 1 info on VesselFinder.com |
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| This ship can actually partially submerge itself, load a giant cargo, and refloat to voyage ahead. March 30 as Red Zed 1 departed Seattle. |
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| Closer look at the bow. |
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| Photo from the web showing Red Zed 1 with communication towers loaded. Where it is going I don't know, but it will require a lot of clearance. Photo from VesselFinder.com |
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| Photo showing the full cargo. Those towers are probably over 100' (30.4m) tall. |
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| Photo from Wikipedia showing the MV Blue Marlin carrying the USS Cole. The only way to load cargo this heavy is to partially submerge, load cargo, and refloat. I am curious ... wonder how deep these ships can submerge themselves. |
