Parkscapes

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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
I'll use this thread to post photos of local parks that I visit while looking for birds to photograph.

Yost Park, Edmonds, WA.
http://www.edmondswa.gov/government...al-services/edmonds-city-parks/yost-park.html

I need to take more photos before the trees leaf out and obscure the views from the top of the ravine. Here are photos of moss-covered trees which I took Friday ( 3/8) afternoon during an unsuccessful search for the resident barred owl pair. Parts of the park see very little sunlight, which allows the moss and ferns to grow on the trees.
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Note: Autumn is my favorite season and Autumn Leaves is my favorite song. I recommend you listen to my favorite version of Autumn Leaves while you viewing these photos to get into the full autumn mood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u37RF5xKNq8


A windstorm Saturday morning (11/2) brought down many dead leaves and fir needles in Yost Park, hiding the pavement of the road to the parking areas.
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It also gave the park a very autumnesque ambiance.
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My son Daren standing at the site of the old water bottling plant, which was owned by the Yost family. The plant furnished water to the young city of Edmonds. If you are going to nail down a monopoly, a city's supply of drinking water is a good one to acquire.
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Deep in the environs of the park's resident barred owl pair. No owl sightings today, but a lady I talked to later in the parking lot said she had heard one on the north side of the ravine.
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Some more shots of Yost Park from Saturday. I find the color contrast of PNW rainforest green and autumn orange/red/yellow quite interesting.
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Even my twenty year old pickup has an autumn look about it.
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All of Saturday's Yost Park photos were taken with my 7D + 2.8/17-35L wide angle zoom lens. I don't know why, but I had to shoot all of them using -1 exposure compensation. Shooting straight on resulted in over-exposure of the fallen leaves.
 
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
An autumn Saturday (11/16) at the Edmonds marsh. The shot was taken with my 5D Mk III/100-400L zoom + 1.4x teleconverter. Not the best combo for a landscape shot, but I was armed for bird hunting and did not want to go back to the pickup to retrieve my 7D/17-35L zoom.

The shot was taken at the #1 viewing platform looking SE across the marsh towards the fish hatchery. The tall poofy-top tree in the center of the photo is the raptor tree on the fish hatchery grounds. I take similar photos from this same location several times a year to document the changing seasons at the marsh.
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Info on the marsh can be found here:
http://www.ci.edmonds.wa.us/governm...ervices/edmonds-city-parks/edmonds-marsh.html
 
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
I enjoy taking photos of the marsh from the same location (usually viewing platform #2) to document the changing of the seasons or a change in the weather.

3/4/14: Low clouds imparted a mysterious ambience to the marsh.
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Time to revisit Yost Park. It is difficult to take photos of the park itself when I am owl hunting in the spring and summer as the leafed out foliage prevents views beyond the paths. Autumn and winter are my seasons for photographing the park. The park gets dark early due to the low sun barely clearing the trees. My son and I walked the park Wednesday (11/12/14) afternoon. Compare these photos with those I took of the park about the same time last year (11/2/13).

This moss-covered tree is a prominent feature on the steep trail down the ravine to Shell Creek. Looking down the trail.
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Looking back up the trail.
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Shell Creek was the water supply for the young city of Edmonds. At the bottom of the steep trail are remnants of the dam used to collect and pipe the water.
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My son Daren is standing on the bridge over one of the springs which feeds Shell Creek.
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Another shot of the old dam.
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Looking upstream.
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Photos in the clearing under the giant "swing" tree where I have photographed the owls.
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Directions posted on the steps up the giant swing tree.
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
The Mad Hatter's House according to the sign on the steps of the giant swing tree.
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Shell Creek is fed by springs. Upstream of the last spring is a channel which handles the runoff after a rain.
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Looking west on the maintenance road, located on the south side of the ravine.
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Looking down into the ravine from the maintenance road, which gradually climbs up the ravine from east to west.
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Interesting seeing the remnants of that dam, Bill. Thanks for following up on this thread.

It is difficult to take photos of the park itself when I am owl hunting in the spring and summer as the leafed out foliage prevents views beyond the paths.
Reminds me, I need to check the local parks here for owls now that foliage is next to nothing in some areas. I'm finding that the Barred owls are becoming noticeably present year round in and around their spring and summertime haunts. You might have some success in finding them in Yost Park right about now.



Chad
 

Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Interesting seeing the remnants of that dam, Bill. Thanks for following up on this thread.

Reminds me, I need to check the local parks here for owls now that foliage is next to nothing in some areas. I'm finding that the Barred owls are becoming noticeably present year round in and around their spring and summertime haunts. You might have some success in finding them in Yost Park right about now.

Chad

I need to research our local museum for photos of the late 19th/early 20th Century water works at Yost Park.

In the autumn and winter, the Yost Park barred owl pair leave the bottom of the ravine, as the leaves have fallen and the trees offer no hiding places from harassment by the evil minions of the Dark Lord. The owls hang out in the "dark" NE corner of the park where a stand of Douglas' firs provides cover and protection from the crows. If your local parks have similar "dark" corners, that is where you should start looking for the owls.
 
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Tuesday (12-2-14) Janine and I went to Chase Lake looking for birds. The lake, a former peat bog converted to a retention pond, was frozen over and Janine was hoping to get photos of ducks sliding on the ice as they landed. No such luck on the skating ducks, but the pond had some nice winter images.

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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
The ice on the lake created interesting patterns. We heard strange loud noises, which Janine concluded was the ice cracking as it melted.

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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
It snowed a week ago (Friday 11/28/14). The following week was marked by clear but cold days where the temperature remained below freezing in the shade. This created winter like conditions in the marsh on Wednesday (12/3/14) which reminded me of that famous scene from the movie Dersu Uzala.

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