A red-winged blackbird perches on a branch late on a sunny winter afternoon as the tree begins to bud out as spring beckons.
Tag: auto tour
Swim, Swim, Shoveler
A simple portrait of one of my favorite birds in the late light of winter.
On Point
I think the male mallard is one of our most beautiful birds but they are often unappreciated because they are so common and tame in duck ponds around the country. How much more so the females without the glorious green! At Ridgefield mallards are not so common and quite shy so I photograph them whenever I get the chance, and when this pair swam in my direction I focused on the female on point.
Are You Hoarse?
No but I do have a frog in my throat.
Fish Heads, Fish Heads
Great blue herons normally swallow their prey whole, I believe this fish head came courtesy of a family of river otters I had seen moving through shortly before. Although effective hunters themselves, I’ve seen herons shadow otters before to try for scraps from the on-the-move otters (and seen otters make feints towards the herons if they think they’re getting too close and might grab more than just leftovers).
Borderland
A Wilson’s snipe in its element at the edge of the marsh.
Winttern
An American bittern pauses while hunting the shores of Rest Lake on a winter morning.
Early Flight
A young bald eagle soars above Rest Lake on a cold winter morning.
Bittern Ball
I came across this bittern ball early on a winter morning at Rest Lake. Bitterns can take on a variety of shapes but I suspect this one is so spherical because it fluffed out its feathers to keep warm on the unusually cold day.
Melting Ice
A pied-billed grebe surfaces beside melting ice at Rest Lake in Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Unlike the melting sea ice, the melting lake ice isn’t alarming, as during our mild winters it rarely freezes in the first place. A cold snap froze some of the shallower and smaller lakes and ponds, but it was nothing compared to the snowstorm that in a week would bury us first in heavy snow then thick ice when it melted and re-froze.
Boolie 