Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
I love watching the diving ducks on Horse Lake, like this female scaup starting her dive to search for food under the water. She pushes forward with her flattened tail on the surface of the water and her webbed feet below and breaks the surface of the water with her beak, her body soon to follow. It’s absolute poetry and I’ll never tire of watching it.
This is the tail end (literally) of a female lesser scaup diving head first under the water, water spilling off of her flattened tail in the back and splashing away in front from where her beak broke the surface tension of the water.
Visit Ridgefield during the winter and nearly every body of water will have American coots on it. I spent a good deal of time this past winter photographing coots at Horse Lake, a seasonal pond at the start of the auto tour, trying to capture different aspects of their lives, such as how American wigeon will dash over to eat the plants a coot has worked loose from the lake bed.
The wigeon will swim over after a coot dives and try to eat what it brings up when it surfaces. Many times it seems to me they spend more energy chasing after the coots than if they had just dabbled in the shallow water to feed themselves. Other ducks like gadwall also participate in this thievery – as do other coots as well – but the wigeon are relentless. For their part, the coots put up with it without much fuss. Here, a male and female pair come at the coot from each side.
2011 turned out to be a good year for watching killdeer for me, all thanks to this pair. I first saw them up close near the refuge parking lot, then early one winter morning I spotted them again running in front of Horse Lake. Suddenly the male jumped onto the female and they mated, and later I had the privilege of seeing them raise their family at the edge of the lake. A little slice of killdeer life, all witnessed in the short space between the parking lot and the end of Horse Lake.
The pintails on Horse Lake often keep their distance but sometimes you’ll get lucky and they’ll swim close to the shore, such as this handsome drake on New Year’s Eve.
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 young great blue heron pauses while hunting for voles near Horse Lake. I’ve seen juvenile herons in this area over multiple years, it is right near the start of the auto tour and I suppose the older herons don’t consider it prime territory. I didn’t think I’d have much chance for pictures on this occasion as the heron was a bit far off and facing in the other direction, but it eventually turned and came right towards my car. Those blue feathers on its head that are sticking up will turn white as it ages.
A male ring-necked duck rests on the still waters of Horse Lake.
Sunrise at Horse Lake, frozen solid on a cold January morning.
Tundra swans usually don’t come close to the road at Ridgefield so I was particularly pleased late on a winter’s day to find an accommodating swan. But as I was photographing it, someone else came up and parked behind me and committed the cardinal sin of the auto tour — he opened his car door and got out. Of course the swan spooked and I drove away in frustration and was going to head home, but instead calmed myself and started looking for other things to shoot. The meadow at the end of the auto tour was empty, no herons or hawks or coyotes, so I thought I was done for the day.
But this great egret was waiting for me just past the parking lot and let me photograph it until it was time to head home.
Boolie 