Category: Special Places

Considering the amount of rain we’ve had recently, I quickly seized on yesterday’s sunshine to head off to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, my first chance to walk it since they opened the outside loop at the end of January. More than a few people seem motivated by the same idea.

I pointed out this American Bittern to a man and his mother whose pace seemed to match my own.

As it turned out, we spent most of the morning together and once again proved the old birding adage that three sets of eyes are always better than one set as his mother pointed out this beautiful heron right beside the trail

and the son pointed out this impressive kestrel just as we were finishing our walk.

All in all, it was a delightful day and a much need respite from the continual grey weather that has dominated this winter.

We’ve had three consecutive days of sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest, and I’ve been enjoying them tremendously. However, sunshine in the winter also means cold weather, and it was bitterly cold at Nisqually today, much harsher than I’d suspected.

I probably should have expected as much when I was greeted by this Northern Harrier when I got out of the car.

But I was surprised when I realized that all the ponds were frozen and most of the ducks I saw last week were nowhere in sight, probably a good thing since raptors seemed to be everywhere today.

I’ve seen a lot of harriers at Nisqually, but I’ve never seen a Peregrine Falcon before, and I doubt I would have realized what it was if the refuge personnel hadn’t pointed it out to me.

I’m glad that gaze was fixated on the ducks in the pond in front of us and not on me.

However, when this immature Bald Eagle landed on a tree right above me as I was walking along, I began to wonder if I wasn’t also on the menu for today.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for the ducks hunkered down on a small island in the middle of a frozen lake with hunters blasting away to the south and north while raptors fly overhead.

Our sunshine has disappeared overnight, but that gave me time to play with Photoshop and my new computer. Now it only takes seconds to compare various Photoshop effects, so you’re probably going to see more manipulated photos than in the past.

Wednesday’s shoot at Nisqually was split into two parts. The first part was devoted to taking pictures of song birds, which weren’t nearly as numerous as ducks and were skittish at best.

Finally, I spent a half hour standing in one place waiting for the sparrows to come back. I actually got several good shots of a Gold-Crowned Sparrow, but this is my favorite:

And while I was taking pictures of the sparrows foraging on the ground, this Spotted Towhee landed on a tree and proceeded to call loudly until I looked up and spent the next ten minutes taking pictures of it: