No, I didn’t make it to Mount St. Helens today. Didn’t have set plans, of course, and Misha was actually being super-sweet. She decided to cuddle upon my lap in the 90° heat. Well, when your kitty is over 21 and you know time is short, when she wants to cuddle, you cuddle. So we did. And then Boo was busy on the bathmat, giving herself a bath, when I attempted to take a shower. And then Pipa wanted a walk. And then I went to get the car serviced, and then bought cat litter, and ended up leaving my tablet at the store, but happily some wonderful soul turned it in to customer service, so that was a little bit of all right. By the end of all that, though, I was done, and hadn’t even packed yet, so I decided I’d risk the party. I’m currently in the yard listening to a dude relate how he was interviewed by the FBI as an Unabomer suspect. This is an interesting bunch. The music’s good, too.
Yes, that is correct. I am so devoted to you, my darlings, that I blog for you during a party. That’s love, that is! Also, they’ve just started asking me what the word is for a flock of birds that swoops and divides and comes together again. They think murmuration. Damn it, Jim, I know rocks, not birds! I have no idea. So it’s over to you! There’s a bonus UFD sort of thing.
Anyway. I have prepared for you a UFD we saw at Mount Baker, so you will get a few pretty photos in a volcanic setting.So. I solemnly swear there is a UFD in this photo.
Here, I’ll crop and enlarge for you.
Here’s a nice image showing the stream, and the UFD is in this one, too.
Here, let me show you it:
This bird had actually flown so close to our heads that I could’ve got you a magnificent image if I’d had the camera ready. Alas, by the time I’d got it aimed, the bugger was halfway down the valley.
It came in for a landing on the trees. I couldn’t see it, so I kind of just pointed, shot, and hoped. Look what we got!
Apparently, that tree wasn’t quite perfect, because it moved to another. And here we get a sorta-decent look at it at last.
Oh, heck, have one more.
Magnificent little bastich, innit?
I’m not at all sure what it is, but I can tell you it’s very, very fast. And awesome. And I hope Suzanne and I get lucky at Mount St. Helens this weekend. I’m headed down tomorrow for a solo adventure… somewhere, I haven’t decided quite where yet. Maybe I’ll come back with something even more amazeballs.
Absolutely beautiful. But I’ve proven time and again that I’m not good with raptor-type birds, so I’m just going to say ‘osprey!’ and be content to be wrong.
Murmuration it is.
And I’m going to go with osprey, as well.
Enjoy your adventure, wherever it turns out to be.
Hey Dana,
Definitely an osprey. BTW with one of those around, you are unlikely to see any bald eagles, they are antagonists.
T
Late to the party as usual, but definitely an osprey.
If you see an eagle and an osprey, the eagle will usually be trying to steal dinner (fish) from the osprey.
tmscott and Trebuchet: I didn’t know that about eagles and ospreys. I’ll have to watch for antagonism between them in two weeks when I go up to Great Pond in Maine. There are several osprey families there, and at least one bald eagle. I hadn’t noticed any disquiet between them before, so now I’m going to keep an eye out for it. And it’ll probably be obvious and I’ll wonder how I never saw it before.
I think they are correct. You can compare your sighting to a few IFDs if you want to be sure.
Bald Eagle attacking Osprey for a fish. There is other good footage of Osprey here as well, including a gull chasing an Osprey for its catch.