BIRD OF THE WEEK NO. 24

Neah Bay Doves

ONE END of the museum at the Butler Motel and Nature Museum in Neah Bay serves as the lobby for the motel. The yard behind the rented rooms backs into a forested wetland, part of an eight-acre parcel on the Makah reservation that was inherited by Richard Butler, a tribal member. Nancy, his wife, lovingly tends the museum, a single room in the front with mounts of a black bear, cougar, and elk head, a river otter that got caught in a crab pot, and a rare lynx cub. A few glass cases display shells and smaller animals, and the lobby end has a few faded books and board games. Though in her mid-seventies, Nancy also runs the motel, washes the sheets, and regularly replenishes the array of bird feeders she’s placed in the backyard.

THE MAKAH RESERVATION lies at the northwesternmost point of the lower forty-eight states and is bisected by the Wa’atch River, which spills into the Pacific on the west side. The wildlife, and the Makah, depend upon a bounty of fish and crustaceans from the sea. Birdwatchers love the variety of habitats, especially when migrants stop to rest on their way to and from Alaska and other points north. On a previous visit, I had seen a flock of Eurasian Collared-Doves perched in the moss-covered trees behind the motel. When I returned in the fall of 2019, I stayed at the motel and rose early to see the herons and shorebirds on the bay. At one point, in the dim morning light, I nearly ran into an immature bald eagle that was as startled as I was by the encounter. For the rest of the day, I drove slowly down the shore of the Wa’atch, where I found a Red-tailed Hawk and various ducks, and on to the beach, where there were gulls and cormorants. All day, the skies were overcast and the light dull—the typical northwestern “pewter” day that is challenging for making photographs. Near sunset, I returned, disappointed, to the motel. There, in the yard, I saw a picture—several of the doves were competing at a copper feeder set on a stump. I scrambled down on the ground as the light started to fade. Since I knew motion blur was my enemy, I cranked up the shutter speed. And just as I started shooting, the setting sun finally poked through the clouds behind me.

Nikon D500, 420mm, 1/1250 sec @ f4, ISO 6400

This photograph, “Neah Bay Doves,” has found its way into several collections, including that of a curator at the San Francisco Museums of Fine Art. Locally, it has been shown in two galleries and the hospital. A five by six-foot print will hang in the Outside In exhibit at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, which will open this week. When I called Nancy Butler Saturday to confirm some details about the motel for this post, she told me that a birder she knew had seen a mounted photograph at the Port Townsend hospital of some doves and had sent her a snap from his phone. She was delighted to learn that the photograph was mine, taken at her motel four years ago.