Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
A juvenile great blue heron hunts in the meadow beside Bull Lake late on a sunny Christmas afternoon, one of the last shots I took after spending all day at the refuge. Initially it was farther off but as I sat quietly in the car (with the car shut off) it came quite close as it listened for voles moving beneath the grass.
📷: Canon M | Canon 500mm f/4 + 1.4X
🗓️: December 25, 2013
On a sunny Christmas afternoon, an adult great blue heron hunts for voles along the edge of Rest Lake while tundra swans swim near the far shoreline.
Raindrops pelt the surface of Canvasback Lake as a greater yellowlegs hunts in the shallows.
A female flicker is thoroughly soaked on a rainy December afternoon. Her family were frequent visitors to the suet feeders in our backyard and I was thankful for it, I have a soft spot for woodpeckers.
A double-crested cormorant surfaces after looking for fish in Horse Lake, showing the sharp hook at the end of its bill. I’ve seen them in this close at Horse Lake before but more typically I see them on the opposite side of the refuge in Bower Slough. I was hoping this one would swim even closer so I could better photograph it’s brilliant blue eyes, but there was too much traffic for it to feel comfortable and this was as close as it came to the road.
A hooded merganser swims into the shallows of Long Lake to hunt for fish. It swam up with its crest extended but pulled it down tighter and tighter as it prepared to dive under the water. There’s a culvert at the end of the lake where logs accumulate and mergansers like to fish in the area. There’s a sign on a bright metal chain above the culvert, warning people to stay back, that obstructed the view when it surfaced with a small fish in its bill. Mergansers are shy so I didn’t dare risk spooking it by starting the car to move into better position.
A great blue heron pauses its preening for a brief yawn on a rainy January afternoon.
Cackling geese fly at sunrise above Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. I deliberately set the exposure to leave the scene dark, this is not at all what it looked like to the naked eye.
A red-tailed hawk flies above Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge as the sun is about the clear the trees atop the hill that overlooks the refuge, while fog hangs above the river and lakes.
A flock of cackling geese flies in the familiar V formation as the sun is about to rise above the hill that overlooks the refuge, while fog settles in down near the river.
Boolie 