Old Acquaintances

I’m thankful that after the morning fog burned off that it was a beautiful, sunny day here in the Pacific Northwest and that I was able to head out for The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge.

Much of the morning I played tag with the sun. I suspect the diffuse, gray skies actually made it easier to get a good picture of this male Bufflehead because I didn’t blow out the whites like I usually manage to do.

Bufflehead Duck

At the end of the first leg of my walk I was greeted by the largest flock of Cedar Waxwings I’ve ever seen.

Cedar Waxwings

The highlight of the day came at the other end of the walk when I got another chance to see the pair of River Otters that live somewhere nearby. I think they were impatient for us to move on because one of them would swim out from behind the reeds every so often to take a look at us but would then swim back into the reeds after spotting us. Of course, we kept waiting for them to come out so we could get a better shot. Guess who won that battle of wills?

River Otter

Luckily we were following a dedicated group of bird watchers with scopes, or we would have never seen this owl. In fact, even with some help I had trouble seeing it, probably because it didn’t want to be seen.

Owl