August, 2020
A bird and a boat
Airborne or waterborne, birds or boats, they are all terrific aren’t they? In truth, some birds are not airborne, they don’t fly. Hmmm, I don’t personally know any boats that are not waterborne, although the Spruce Goose was certainly built as more of an airplane than a boat. Interestingly, the Spruce Goose is now here in the Pacific Northwest. It is on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. I’m sure there must be a campground around there somewhere close to McMinnville.
Ah, but let’s get back to my bird-and-boat adventure here on Fidalgo Island.
After my morning on Mt. Erie, I had lunch back at the campground in my trailer, then I headed out on foot simply for a hike on the trails and the small roadway that winds around the edge of the campground. Oh boy, that was beautiful. The road and the trails are mostly in woods, but there are some beautiful overlooks out over the waters of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.
My favorite viewpoint of the day was at a rather large overlook with a view of Burrows Island immediately to the south.
How nice that the motorsailer cruised past while I was taking photos.
I stood and watched the boat for a little bit, and walked around the viewpoint a little bit. By and by, I noticed a cluster of folks at a picnic table, all of them looking up and to the right. Hmmm, what are they looking at?
I started looking around with my camera, using its zoom lens.
Ah ha! There, up on that branch … do you see it?
There was much discussion among the humans about what type of hawk this was. I listened to the humans long enough to realize that agreement was not going to be forthcoming. What a sweet hawk it was though. And I suspect she/he knew her/his own name. 🙂
Do any of you readers know what type of hawk this is?
I found the photo below on the internet from another photographer. It shows you that exact same area … and it shows you the really gorgeous dead tree that was there when I was there. The hawk was not in this dead tree, but was in a tree over on the edge of the bluff, on the right side of that fence. I was so preoccupied with and engaged by the hawk that I didn’t think to get a photo of this gorgeous tree.
When I turned my attention back to Burrows Island and the boat that was cruising past, I found the boat was long gone.
Oh, but wait. I looked to the right, to the west, into the western sun, and there was the boat right down there, just leaving the passage between Fidalgo Island (where I was standing) and Burrows Island. The boat and its occupants were heading west, out towards the San Juan Islands. I wished them fair winds and safe passage … and adventures along the way.
