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.
Tag: Washington
The Living Rock
Late in September of 2008, I was hiking for the first time in the Sunrise portion of Mount Rainier National Park. It was cold and pouring rain but it was the start of a week of hiking and I was in a good mood. As I came across a talus field I noticed an unusual rock at the edge of the path. But when my rock moved as I approached I realized I had just seen my first hoary marmot.
My camera didn’t have any weather sealing and a previous accident had left a gaping hole at the top of the camera, but I couldn’t resist a few pictures.
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.
Treed
While driving past Bower Slough I came upon a family of river otters that were fishing and preening and playing. After a while a family of raccoons came meandering down the shoreline but they bolted for the trees when the otters saw them. After the otters circled the trees for a while they moved on and eventually the raccoons descended back to the ground. This one initially got caught behind some wire mesh that had been put around the base of the tree to protect it from beavers, but it climbed back up past the mesh and hopped into an adjacent tree and then to the ground.
Yellow-rump (Myrtle)
A yellow-rumped warbler (Myrtle) gets pelted by the rain on a spring afternoon.
Yellow-rump (Audubon’s)
A yellow-rumped warbler pauses at the edge of South Quigley Lake on a spring afternoon.
Preening
A great blue heron preens its neck feathers by running them through the tip of its bill.
Boolie 