I walked Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge for the first time in years today and had a delightful time, despite sporadic bursts of machine gun fire and thudding booms of artillery pieces drifting across the valley from Ft. Lewis.

For a very short time I had a chance to experience this area the way pioneers must have experienced it, nature at its most beautiful.

I really didn’t have too many expectations; I just wanted to try out a new 400 mm telephoto lens, the one I got to take bird pictures.

Strangely enough, one of the first birds I encountered was a Kingfisher, a bird I didn’t even know existed in the Pacific Northwest until I read a Tacoma Tribune article about Point Defiance Park last Sunday. Once I saw the article , I decided that I would get a picture of each of the birds they showed.

It’s not as good a picture as the one above or some others I took and will probably post later, but I was simply delighted the picture I took of a bird sitting on top a dead snag turned out to be the very bird I most wanted to get a picture of. Hopefully it will follow the recent pattern of the Western Tiger Swallowtail and the Hummingbird, with gradually improving pictures until I get one I’m really happy with and can move on in pursuit of another perfect moment.

While I’m not entirely convinced that the picture taking was actually any better at that hour, I did get some very different pictures this week than I did last week. Of course, part of the reason was I didn’t focus as much on the Great Blue Herons, even though they seem to be featured at the refuge this time of year. Simply put, they’re everywhere and they make great subjects for photographs because, unlike most other birds, they stand still for great lengths of time.

Ironically, even though I was in too much of a rush to get out of the house to bother with showers, etc., all of the early birds I took picures of seemed to be more concerned with preening themselves than getting to work on time or earning a good meal.

This picture of ducks and Canadian geese preening captures both the overall darkness and the low angle of a sun just above the horizon:

Considering that the American Bittern is rarely seen, I guess my prize photograph of the day would have to be this one:

where the bittern strikes a typical pose, quite convincingly pretending to be just another part of the reeds. Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for volunteer refuge worker who told me about it, I doubt I would have ever seen it.