Other Wildlife at Crystal Springs

American Beaver

That's No Nutria …

That’s no moon, that’s a space station! Obi-wan Kenobi

I’m so used to seeing nutria here in the Northwest that I’m always surprised to see another swimming rodent. On this occasion even at a glance I realized this rodent had a different profile in the water than a nutria.

I snapped off a few pictures while it swam off, starting to question whether I really saw what I thought I saw. A nutria appeared shortly thereafter where my so-called beaver had gone, leaving me a little disappointed and confused at my mistake. But then another large rodent swam from the area and headed in my direction.

It soon submerged but was easily visible in the clear shallow water, and as it swam below me and under the bridge its large flat tail was clearly visible. Turns out my first instinct was right after all.

Bufflehead

An Eye For An Eye

Bufflehead are really small and usually shy ducks, so one of the challenges in photographing them is simply to get close enough without disturbing them. It's much easier if they're habituated to people, such as this male at the Garden. The challenges don't end with getting close, however, as the males present the same challenge as shooting our cat Scout: patches of white against patches of near-black (or even true black in Scout's case). Do you expose for the highlights or the shadows?

At least Scout has striking golden eyes that really draw the eye when looking at her pictures — an important point in animal photos, where the eye can play such a crucial role. With bufflehead though, not only do they have black eyes, but the eyes are set into the dark part of the head, making it much harder to not have the eye disappear into a blob of darkness. I had overcast lighting for this bufflehead which made the exposure choice much easier. I only had to wait until I had both a background that I liked and for the little duck to angle its head just so that a bit of light reflected off its eye to make it stand out from the dark feathers.

Knockout Punch

A preening bufflehead accidentally knocks itself out at the Gardens. Some ducks have bright orange legs, but bufflehead have gone the pink route.

No bufflehead were harmed in the making of this picture.

Pied-billed Grebe

A Little Surprise

One of the challenges in shooting at Crystal Springs is that you can have too many subjects. There are a number of mallards and Canada geese plus a smattering of other ducks like wood ducks, wigeon, scaup, bufflehead, and ruddy ducks. They can cluster up and move rapidly across the pond when visitors feed them, which leads to busy backgrounds and distracting wakes in photographs. I bided my time until I not only had the subject that I wanted but also the water looking the way I wanted.

There are a few pied-billed grebes here. These are little birds compared to a mallard or goose and fairly timid by comparison, this was the only one that swam anywhere close to me. Fortunately, most of the other ducks were drawn off by a family tossing cracked corn near the bridge, so I was able to take some nice pictures during the few seconds it was in view. During the summer when they are in their breeding plumage, pied-bills have a white bill (which gives them their name) with a black vertical band in the middle, but in their nonbreeding plumage they have a more nondescript bill like this one.

A pied-billed grebe swims in water colored yellow by the reflection of leaves in nearby trees

A pied-billed grebe swims in water colored yellow and green by the reflection of leaves in nearby trees

Pied-billed grebe sleeping on the water at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

I’m Batman

This little grebe was floating along early one morning, mostly sleeping, in one of the ponds at the Gardens. It mostly seemed to just float with the water, although it likely did a little steering with its webbed feet as well. I waited until its eyes were directly lined up with my own, the way that its head is tucked down between its breast and wing reminds me of Batman with his cape pulled up and covering his face.

Lesser Scaup

American Wigeon

Some Things I Just Don’t Understand

I don’t get to see these lovely ducks nearly as much as I’d like, and when I do see them they are often too far off for pictures. Which is why I really don’t understand the song by The Guess Who that goes “American wigeon, stay away from me …” Maybe the Canadian-American wigeon are less shy than their southern cousins.

A male American wigeon swims in orange-colored water at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Male American wigeon swimming in orange-colored water at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

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