When I started my walk around Lake Padden in Bellingham, Washington, I came upon a dragonfly hanging onto a rosa rugosa. It just stayed there, motionless, for maybe five minutes while I snapped its picture. After it flew away, I found another dragonfly attached to a seed pod. It looked frozen in place, too. At the end of my walk, I came back to check up on it, and it was gone.
I paid a visit to Hedlin’s Family Farm in La Conner, Washington today, and came upon a butterfly flitting around on the purpletop verbena flowers, and a frog nestled in a sunflower…
Photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
A hollyhock bloom growing next to our home. I took this photo with my cellphone and then did that thing where you push down on the image, and everything in the background goes black. I’m really tickled by how this turned out,
Photo of Mount Shuksan from Picture Lake in the North Cascades. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60803140@N06/55456341721/in/dateposted-public/
Tulip Town, Mount Vernon, Washington on April 10, 2026.
(All photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)
All the photos in the collage were taken in Washington State.
Top row: Whatcom Falls bridge; hummingbird in Bellingham; mossy arch over the Horseshoe Bend Trail near Mount Baker.
Center row: Bellingham Bay; Sauk Mountain Trail; Lake Padden reflection.
Bottom row: Baker Lake Trail; Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier National Park; trumpeter swans in a field near Burlington, Skagit County.
(All photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)
When I came to Sunset Road I saw the snow geese just settling down into the field after a raucous flight, and I thought I was too late to take a picture of them in the air. I pulled over and rolled down my window and took a couple pictures of them sitting in the field. I was just ready to pull back onto the road and go home, when they suddenly rose up into another cacophony of flapping wings and honking, and headed my way! I quickly grabbed my camera again and started snapping photos as they flew over my car.
And then, as they were flying over, I heard something splat through my open window and on the windshield. Crap! No, literally, crap! A little landed on my steering wheel, and there was a big splat on my windshield. It was really kind of epic. I started cracking up and laughed all the way home. It was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever experienced.
I headed into town to run some errands. I hadn’t gone far when I saw a field of trumpeter swans. I turned onto Thomas Road to see if I could find a quiet place to pull over and watch the birds. And I suddenly and unexpectedly passed a young bald eagle sitting on a post at eye-level and not more than a few yards from me. Whoah.
I started taking pictures from my car, and then, seeing that the eagle seemed comfortable with me, I got out of my car and walked towards him, snapping my camera as I walked. I took pictures for maybe ten minutes, chatting with the eagle while I took his picture, telling him how magnificent he was. It was magic!
(On the way back from town I stopped to check on him because I was a little worried about him. He’d flown away. I took this as a good sign.)
Photos taken in Skagit County, Washington, by Karen Molenaar Terrell. The smudges around the eagle’s eyes will disappear as he grows older.
