Prepping for winter. Be kind to the animals

I'm writing this and staring at a bag of birdseed, sitting at my feet. The feeders are empty and I feel a twinge of guilt. So, tomorrow, before I head off to PLU, the feeders will get filled.

Here is a great blog and a great post on how to be kind to the critters in our back yard during the winter, which here, seemed to start this weekend with blasting rainstorms that knocked all the leaves off the trees.

Low-tide finds

These great pictures were taken by Peter Haley at The News Tribune. They are on the top of the photographer's blog if you want a better look. Here is his story on how he got the shot (which was at a Pierce County beach, not one up here, but you can find the same sort of critters).

Linda Perez, visiting from California, pauses during some clam digging at Kopachuck State Park.

When shooting low tide photos last week my thinking was that I want to get close to some interesting critter, but still show the whole place and some people. The usual technique is to use a very wide lens with a small aperture for great depth of field (great depth of field means that the foreground stuff is in focus, and so is the background stuff).

I also noticed the nice reflections in areas where the beach is fully wet, and that these reflections are maximized when the camera is very low, whether shooting with a wide lens or not.

The Nikon D2H that I use is a big SLR-- a big single lens reflex camera. Big enough that one can't get the lens really close to the ground. I can get the lens closest to the ground when holding the camera upside down and use what is ordinarily the vertical shutter release-- something that the pro cameras have.

So that's what I did. Using a 14mm (the widest lens that is commonly available) and holding the camera upside down, I shot hail-mary style with the camera close to an old crab. I had hoped the crab would hold up his claws in a defensive position, but he wasn't moving much, so I only had to watch the woman and try to catch a good moment of her activity.

Me again:
I have found geoducks at Des Moines beach, and also some very angry crabs (don't want to get pinched by the red rock crabs, it hurts). It's also fun to watch them slowly disappear in the mud, trying to wait until the next tide covers them up.

Critters on Scenic Hill

Just went to my first Scenic Hill Community Council meeting last night, and one of the most interesting parts of the meeting was having the KC Animal Control officer we invited tell us about the types of wildlife living right next door.

The usual, squirrels, raccoons, skunks and yes, coyotes (no mention of shooting them in this group tho). Then the unusual, like red fox, small beavers and deer. In Mill Creek Park?

"If you see one, there are probably 20 more around, at least," he said. "If you see one coyote, there is probably a pack."

Just waiting for one of my fat cats to waddle within range, no doubt.

One woman was complaining that raccoons were emptying out her koi pond. He just looked at her and said, really, the only way to make the raccoons to go away is remove the food source. IE, the koi.

One man actually said he's called out a agency to trap and release squirrels in his yard. That seems to me, a bit of a exercise in futility.

Probably won't catch the culprits, so we'll look up instead

While coming home from walking the dog, Gary noticed that someone or something was systematically making off with the daffodil bulbs he planted this weekend. At least he wasn't talking poison this time, but chili peppers. Squirrels? Raccoons? Who knows.

But while we may look outside late Friday or Saturday night to catch the culprits, we'll also be looking up at the Geminids meteor shower. Or at least try to through the clouds.

Here is a good explainer piece of meteors in general from MSNBC:


Meteor lore