I enjoy photographing wildlife that are inadvertently carrying around a bit of their environment, such as this female green-winged teal who still has a bit of the plant life she was eating hanging from her bill.
Tag: River S Unit
Orthogonal
I’m always a bit jealous of animals that can swivel their ears around, such as this Columbian white-tailed deer fawn.
Early Present
In 2013, I returned to Ridgefield a couple of days before Christmas after a nearly year-long absence from the refuge. It was a fun day filled with herons and mergansers and even my first sighting of Columbian white-tailed deer, but I was especially pleased to see bitterns, a sentimental favorite of mine, at Rest Lake.
Hoodie & The Fish
I spent the morning sitting still at the edge of Long Lake and was rewarded when a small group of hooded mergansers swam in close to feed. There’s a sign hanging above a culvert that blocks part of the view of this section of the lake, but thankfully for me this male surfaced in plain view with a fish in his mouth.
Impaled
I’ve seen great blue herons catch a wide a variety of animals at Ridgefield, but most of the fish they catch near the shore are really small, so I was a bit surprised when this heron speared a larger fish at the edge of Long Lake.
The Elegant Pintail
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 Muddy Beak
I didn’t have much exposure to great blue herons before I moved to Oregon years ago, but the ones I had seen hunted in bodies of water, so I was rather surprised when I moved here and saw herons frequently hunting on land. This young heron, as you can see from its muddy beak, was hunting for voles in a meadow. There’s a little bit of blood at the base of its beak, I’m not sure if it’s from the heron or one of its victims.
The Fallen Perch
A barn swallow takes a break from hunting insects over Long Lake on a rainy spring day. This was one of my favorite spots at the refuge to take pictures, the dead tree to which this branch was attached was close to the road and I spent many hours just sitting in my car watching to see what would swim or walk or fly by, but sadly the tree fell over into the lake.
Nest Material
A marsh wren pulls nesting material from a cattail, soaked on a wet spring afternoon.
Hunting in the Slough
A raccoon hunts along the shoreline of Bower Slough.
Boolie 