Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
These Canada geese (or cacklers? I can’t tell the difference between small Canadas and large cacklers) were eating at Rest Lake in a heavy rain when they tilted their heads back to swallow, but the difference in the poses reminded me of people acting naturally before they see a camera but posing when they realize they’re being photographed.
A northern harrier perches above the marsh at Rest Lake, sometimes obscured in fog, sometimes not, as the sun struggles to break through on a winter morning.
Bullfrogs are voracious predators and not native to the Northwest but they are also a food source for a variety of animals that have learned to eat them. This large bullfrog was I think killed by a family of otters that came through earlier, it looked like one of them had caught the frog and eaten its front legs and a bit near the back before leaving. The heron was happy to eat what the otters left, dunking the frog a couple of times in the water (birds like herons and bitterns do this at times with their prey when near water) before getting it positioned in its beak where it could swallow the frog whole.
A red-winged blackbird perches on a branch late on a sunny winter afternoon as the tree begins to bud out as spring beckons.
A simple portrait of one of my favorite birds in the late light of winter.
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.
No but I do have a frog in my throat.
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).
An American bittern pauses while hunting the shores of Rest Lake on a winter morning.
A young bald eagle soars above Rest Lake on a cold winter morning.
Boolie 