Mariners?

OK, so I am off only by about 48 miles from Ray Nash Drive....

Our son Matt and daughter Ashley are in town so we headed out to the Seattle Mariners today. The Mariners had a rare win and we had great time!

Here are some fun shots from the game. (Click on the peanut vendor picture and see if you can find a dollar bill and the bag of peanuts he threw to his customer).

Spadoni Hill

One of our favorite things to do on Ray Nash Drive is take our dogs on a walk up Spadoni Hill. Other than almost being run over by Autobahn motorists on Ray Nash Dr., it is a beautiful walk. Here are some pictures from today and earlier this month.

Osprey viewing

Well, it has been a couple of days since I updated my Blog. Between Memorial Day weekend excursions and travel to Atlanta, I have not had the time.

I am currently sitting on Delta Flight #9691 on my way back to Seattle from ATL. While bored and browsing through some of my recent pictures on Ray Nash Drive, I came across a recent series of pictures that I took of an amazing Osprey back on May 19th. These birds are amazing dive bombers. This particular Osprey usually sits in my neighbor’s tree and whistles waiting for a fish to come near the surface of the cold Puget Sound water. I happened to see this bird make a Bee-Line for its prey and hit the water literally at 40 MPH+. I could hear the splash from over a hundred yards away. Very seldom does the bird come up empty handed (or is it footed?)…

What is really interesting about this series of pictures is if you look closely at the 4th picture you will see that the animal it has in its talons does not look like a fish. It actually looks like a crab! I am going to have to do some research and see if this could possibly be the case. (If anyone has heard of such a thing…please let me know….)

Enjoy!

The Last of the Goldeneye

The Barrows Golden Eye duck is common visitor in our backyard from late October through the end of May.



These diving wonders are beautiful Ducks. Male Goldeneye's have a purplish/black head and the female has a brownish red head. Both sexes have truly Golden eyes…




During the winter months there are usually 3-5 pairs swimming off our porch. Now that it is late May, most of the Goldeneye's have headed North to Canada to their breeding grounds.


I am already looking forward to seeing these birds back in the late Fall...

John

Kayaks....exercise and pictures

Our friends Matt and Kimber Thomson let us use their Kayaks while they were pregnant. I thought when they dropped them off that they would be a great way for me to exercise daily. It has now been over a year; baby Reese is walking and I still have them sitting on our dock. Like the treadmill I own, I have not made the best use of these devices..(but they sure do pose well!)

Chicken Legs

Blue Herons are one of the most common birds around Ray Nash Drive. There always seems to be one or two herons hanging out spearing fish and crabs with their long yellow beaks. Here are some pictures of a Heron today that I thought looked kind of funny.



These legs kind of remind me of my brothers legs when he used to run around in his underwear when we were kids…

Kingfisher in my midst

It was another rainy day on Ray Nash Drive. Just when I thought there was nothing to take a picture of…. this little Kingfisher shows up outside my office window. I ended up taking this picture right through the windowpane. (If you click on the picture you can actually see rain drops all around him).

These little birds are a blast to watch. They dive into the water and come up with fish almost every time. (The second picture here was taken on a different day).

John

GOSLING MANIA

Here are a couple of pictures today of baby Canadian geese (AKA... Goslings). The one picture actually shows 35 goslings (click on the picture and you can count them). All of the geese were staying close together for protection. Just last month we saw the last of 12 baby Mallards picked off by a Bald Eagle. (The lone shot of the Canadian goose at sunset was taken 3/23/08)

The Journey

I have decided to start a blog. I have found that I am taking pictures from our "new" home almost everyday. I always seem to be sending pictures to friends, family and colleagues weekly via email. This process has to stop..

If your a nature fan, you should enjoy my blog......God has a way of being way more creative than I could ever dream of...

Enjoy!

John Pleau