With the advancing springtime offering longer daylight hours and improved weather conditions, my family and I took a trip back to our ancestral home of Astoria, Oregon for a week-end stay at the Cannery Pier Hotel. Built on the pier of a former salmon cannery, this hotel offers a view like no other of the vast lower Columbia River. Naturally, as any good naturalist and photographer would, I took along my Swarovski digiscoping rig in hope of recording some images of the local avifauna. I was not disappointed.
Two species of cormorants are common to the lower Columbia River – Double-crested and Pelagic. The Pelagic Cormorants are far less common than the seemingly ubiquitous Double-crested species. In the early spring, it is very easy to see the twin feather tufts atop the head that give the species its name. The ones I was photographing had already mated and as such were quickly losing their mate-attracting adornments.
While focusing the spotting scope on some of the local gulls that were perched on a long-since abandoned-by-humans pier just offshore, I noticed a Canada Goose pair. Not immediately assuming this to be a mated pair, I gave them no initial attention until I spotted something of immense interest near one of the geese.
That’s right – goslings; a whole brood of perpetually moving yellow and light brown fluff. The color of the lichen on the decaying boards of the pier combined with the assorted mosses and grasses that had rooted into the old structure made these little guys quite difficult to see without either binocular or a spotting scope.
The parent geese stayed quite close to the goslings for the entire time I watched them; however as they were separated by both distance and open water from me and any other danger, aside from the gulls of course, I don’t think I was causing them any stress. Some of the poses they adopted, such as the one above, would be perfect material for any Mother’s Day greeting card.
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Location: digiscoping rig positioned on the deck of the Cannery Pier Hotel, Astoria, Oregon.
All images digiscoped.
Equipment:
Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
Spotting Scope: Swarovski ATS 80mm HD
Eyepeice: Swarovski 30x W
Adapter: Swarovski DCB
Tripod: Swarovski Carbon CT 101
May 27, 2009 @ 16:59
Aw, ain’t it grand how cute babies are? You really lucked out with them since they were sort of “hidden” by the background. Looks like your trip back home was worth it, John!
July 14, 2009 @ 19:26
These are awesome images! What fun to get such great looks and memories.
July 16, 2009 @ 05:11
Nice shots, John!
The cormorant, in particular, looks tack sharp. And the geese, as you say, would be right at home on greeting cards.
Jeff
July 19, 2009 @ 13:34
great shots.
dan