Sunny weekends are for the birds...

I've noticed something this Spring in Seattle that doesn't entirely delight me. It's this pattern of crappy weather during the week and beautiful days on the weekend. I realize that I'm in the minority regarding this issue but that doesn't change the way I feel about it one bit.

After many consecutive days of rain, wind, and low clouds, the skies opened up and the sun was shining in Seattle. As a photographer, you would think that this would be great news. Not so fast. I swear Seattle's population quadruples when the sun comes out. I really don't know where all of these people come from, but they come, and they come in droves. They come with children in tow and sometimes they are towing the children in wagons or strollers. Sometimes there is a dog in the mix to keep things interesting. They march across every inch of open space surrounding all bodies of water in the city. You can walk through a nasty mud bog where you are scratched by blackberries and surrounded by bugs thinking that you will find a private part of the woods that you can sort of claim for yourself for a moment in time. Not going to happen. You will arrive covered in mud and scratches only to find out that people are already in that spot. You can tuck yourself away behind a log by the water's edge and wait for wildlife to show up for a photo op. The next thing you know, some hippie will be sitting on that log singing kumbaya and playing a picolo. Laugh all you want, I've got photos to prove it. Okay, so it wasn't a picolo. It was a mandolin. You get the idea.

At one point under the trees in Magnuson Park, I spotted a Bewick's Wren singing. For a brief moment I thought that my luck was changing. I locked onto the wren with my lens, seeing what would make for a lovely shot. I was about to release the shutter when what looked to be a 4 year old came barreling down the trail. Just for a split second, the wren and I both spooked and it felt like we were looking at each other trying to figure out where to go. After experiencing similar scenes on the various trails, I decided to bag it for the day and that I would surrender and go home. On my way out I saw a Spotted Towhee but I had already put my lens cap on and turned my camera off. I glanced over at the towhee and said, "good luck! I'd go get under those blackberries if I were you". I don't think the towhee knew what I had said, but it did disappear beneath the blackberries.

Today is supposed to be another beautiful day. If I go out at sunrise, I'm likely to have a much better time of it. Since that is in about five hours, I'm not sure it's really going to happen. I guess time will tell. When I saw the extended forecast on the news, it suggested that the weather during the week would be less than stellar. I can see that I'm going to have to go and photograph raindrops on flowers or something. I'm sure I can capture a lovely raindrop on flower shot, I'd just rather have the bird.