A Short Commute

Pacific Black Brant, Puget Sound

I have spent most of my career getting on airplanes to far-flung locations around the world: Ironically, I have almost no local wildlife coverage. But when a flock of migrating Brant Geese landed on the beach below my home in Seattle, I couldn’t resist putting on my 500mm and heading down there.

Fortunately there are lots of people and cars along this stretch of shoreline, so these little geese were very accepting. This allowed me to sit quietly and capture some very nice moments of behavior: stretching, bathing, and feeding on the beds of eelgrass that attracted them to these urban shores in the first place.

These are a couple of my favorite shots from the morning, proof that there are unexpected pictures almost everywhere. No dramatic light, no vivid colors, but by far the best shots of Brant I’ve ever gotten.