Tag: swimming

Surprise Ending

Close-up view of a great egret's face

I spent New Year’s Eve at Ridgefield from sunrise to sunset. It was sunny and cold throughout the day and the shallower ponds had partially frozen. Near the end of the day I was parked near the start of the auto tour so it would be easy to leave before the gate closed. A great egret was hunting bullfrogs in the shallow channel beside the road and I expected it would be my last wildlife sighting of the year. Not a bad way to end the year.

A river otter breaks through the ice so it can take a breath

But then I heard a loud crack in the ice and looked down to see that a river otter had punched though the ice to come up for air. It didn’t stay long before submerging and swimming out of sight, but it made me laugh, Ridgefield giving me one last surprise to close out the year.

Surprise Ending

The egret had moved on, the otter had swum away, so I was about to pack up my camera for the trip home when a couple of hooded mergansers swam by in open water beside the ice, beautiful in the last light of the day. My goodness but the refuge was putting on a display. After a quick scan to make sure bigfoot wasn’t hiding in the bushes, I packed up my camera and headed home.

The Happy Scaup

A female lesser scaup yawns as she swims across Horse Lake

Over the past few years I’ve noticed there’s a lone female scaup that sometimes hangs out at Horse Lake. I don’t know if it’s the same bird from year to year, and she often hangs out at the far side of the lake, but it’s always a treat when she swims in close. Unfortunately in this instance I had been photographing diving coots and ducks and to get a high shutter speed was shooting at ISO 3200. That’s higher than I like to push the 7D and the technical quality of the picture suffers a bit for it, but since she was yawning it provides a nice change from my other pictures of her.

The Diving Duck

A female lesser scaup starts her dive under the water, her head already underneath the water, at Horse Lake on the auto tour at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Ridgefield, Washington in December 2013

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.

Christmas Summer

A close-up view of a male northern shoveler in his summer plumage (but taken on Christmas)

Male shovelers transition through several different plumages in a year. According to my Sibley guide, this male’s plumage would typically be on display during the summer, but I took this picture on Christmas day. The males have lovely green heads in their breeding plumage, but in this look resemble the females in many ways.

Hoodie & The Fish

A male hooded merganser with a fish in his mouth in Long Lake at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Ridgefield, Washington on December 23, 2013. Original: _7D_7363.CR2

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.

The Shallows

A hooded merganser swims in the shallows of Long Lake

A hooded merganser swims into the shallows of Long Lake to hunt for fish. It swam up with its crest extended but pulled it down tighter and tighter as it prepared to dive under the water. There’s a culvert at the end of the lake where logs accumulate and mergansers like to fish in the area. There’s a sign on a bright metal chain above the culvert, warning people to stay back, that obstructed the view when it surfaced with a small fish in its bill. Mergansers are shy so I didn’t dare risk spooking it by starting the car to move into better position.