Holiday Birding Shots

Actually, some of these are from earlier in the fall, but they are still good.

First, we have a Merlin, which is a type of a falcon. They migrate in October, although some settle in our area for the winter. This guy was one in a family of three, found on a Queens beach one sunny morning.


Purple Sandpipers are northern-most of all sandpipers to winter. They like jetties and rocky coastlines. Sub-freezing temperatures and icy water does not seem to bother them.




This is just a funny picture.


Next we have a partially albino (leucistic) immature Herring Gull. This condition, as you would expect, is extremely rare. Here, the bird's feathers are starting to molt, and the new feathers are lacking in pigment. Notice that the bottom part of the bill is white as well. For some birds leucism is a death sentence, due to not being able to blend in with their surroundings. But I suspect for this gull it'll be much less of a problem.


This immature is still unable to gather food on its own and clings to its parent.


Sunset portrait - Ring-Billed Gull:


Northern Flicker:


A couple of Savannah Sparrows:




Kingfisher's hover:


And to close, a typical winter scape:

Seattle Impressions

Seattle weather is, on one hand, completely constant (rain), but on the other hand, completely unpredictable. You never know which neighborhood those storm clouds will cover. Thankfully, on the day that I was there, they stayed off to the side.



Sunset over Puget Sound.


The storm clouds are catching up with me...


What passes for personal transportation in Seattle:






Golden-Crowned Kinglet:


House Finch:


Fox Sparrow:


Golden-Crowned Sparrow:


Golden-Crowned Sparrow (another one):


A hybrid Western x Glaucous-Winged Gull:

Seattle and Spokane

Some pictures for a visit to Seattle and Spokane, Washington, back in November.







Ah, nothing says Seattle like a lone storm trooper taking his wares back to his van...


Rainbow at the Snoqualmie Pass over the Cascades mountains.


At the merge of Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers:














And back to Seattle:

Windsor

On a stop-over in London, we took a few hours to pop into Windsor and check out the palace. It's actually a castle rather than a palace, and still looks the part:









It lies under the Heathrow flight path, so once every few minutes the Queen's apartments get buzzed by incoming airplanes. Not that different from the rest of West London inhabitants, really.


St George Chapel:






The oldest and innermost part of the Windsor palace: the castle itself. It dates from 11th century, just a little older than the White Castle of the Tower of London:


Some shots from the castle premises:


Nothing less than a Rolls would do: