A juvenile great blue heron hunts in the last throes of direct sunlight on a Christmas afternoon.
Tag: River S Unit
Emerging
A red-legged frog emerges from Bower Slough still partially covered in duckweed.
Crossing Over
When car shopping a couple of years ago, I only considered cars where it was easy to cross from the driver’s seat to the passenger’s seat. I was specifically thinking of situations like this at the auto tour at my local refuge, where I saw a family of river otters to the right of the car and the best views were from the passenger seat. Thankfully crossing over is easy to do in the Subaru Crosstrek we bought and I was able to watch the otters for quite a while as they groomed and played and ate. I was struck by how, even in the midst of vigorous play, the siblings would catch a fish when the opportunity presented itself and enjoy a quick snack before resuming play.
Floating
A male bullfrog floats in quiet contrast to many of the others nearby that were either wrestling with males or mating with females.
Horse Thieves
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.
South Quigley Sora
Sometimes I like to just sit beside the cattails at the edge of South Quigley Lake and wait. Most of the time nothing will happen, but sometimes a bittern or rail or, as in this case, a sora will pass silently by.
Virginia in Washington
I got a brief glimpse of a Virginia rail leading its chicks through the grasses at the edge of Rest Lake the other day, but they were so well obscured that I heard more than saw them. On this day back in 2011, however, I got a nice close (albeit brief) look at an adult.
Future Parents
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.
Can’t … Quite … Reach
While this American bittern may look a bit knackered with its tongue hanging out, it was just trying to dislodge a bit of plant material that was stuck near the base of its bill. It could have reached it with its foot, but perhaps to minimize movement it kept trying – unsuccessfully – with its tongue.
Rain Fisher
A male belted kingfisher perches on a snag as it watches for fish in Long Lake on a rainy winter afternoon. Many of the snags near the road have fallen over, taking many good viewing opportunities with them.
Boolie 