Drove up to Portland OR to attend a conference and it gave me an opportunity to skip out one morning and do a little birding. So I headed north into Washington to the nearby Ridgefield NWR.
The weather was perfect mid 60s with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Went fairly early so there were only a couple of other vehicles around. Since it was the last day of summer, the ponds were completely dry. But there were a couple of creeks and channels with enough water for the few waterfowl still lingering in the area.
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So interestingly enough, the first critters I saw were a pair of coyotes that I Iater learned were still youngsters.
Pair of young coyotes walking across a dry pond.
I also saw quite a few deer throughout the refuge.
A very young buck note the small horns, wanders passed some cattails.
But I came for the birds.
Thanks to Lineatus and IaniusX, I found out I have a new lifer. I saw this bird near the entrance to the Kiva trail.
Fox Sparrow (Sooty subspecies) peers at me over his shoulder before taking off.
Here are some of the other avian residents.
A turkey vulture taking it easy on a large bare tree limb.
A Starling
A Northern Harrier glides on by.
A Northern Flicker most likely a juvenile hen, perches for just a moment
A Mallard flyby.
Great Blue Heron amidst the vegetation
Caught several birds having brunch.
Gold-Crowned Sparrow eating blackberries. You can see some red at the base of the beak.
A Starling captures a dragonfly
Scrub Jay at the feeder. A little different from the CA scrub jays I have in my backyard.
There was a white-breasted nuthatch at the feeder when I drove up and this guy chased him away before I could get a shot. I didn’t get a good glimpse, but one of the other folks did.
After he left, I hoped the nuthatch would come back but I got red-wing blackbirds instead.
You can see a little red under the wing coverts.
A little later I spotted a red-wing blackbird in a tree. My best shot shows no red at all.
All fluffy and showing no color at all.
At one of the stops, I got out and wandered along a path. As I came back I heard a woodpecker knocking but I couldn’t see him. I pointed the camera in the direction where I heard the noise and saw some movement.
There’s a woodpecker in there somewhere.
Zoom — A Hairy Woodpecker hiding in the vegetation.
There was a tree where I could see at least a dozen birds flitting in and out of the branches. But they kept disappearing into the leaves. Finally, one sat on a bare branch deep into the tree way up high. It was so small I couldn’t get a good focus and he was deeply shadowed. But you can make out the heavy streaking that most possibly IDs him as a Pine Siskin.
Hiding in plain sight — which dark shape is a bird?
Zoomed — you can barely see the heavy streaking on the bird.
Another little brown bird foraging in the grass.
Finally, here are a couple of things I found interesting.
The Tent Spider webs were all over the place.
Loved how the light made this web glow.
A turtle rests on a sandbank halfway in the water.
I also saw Ruddy Ducks but couldn’t get a picture. I talked with a couple of people who came in after I did and they said they saw a Kestrel sitting on the big entrance sign when they came in. He sure wasn’t there when I came and took the picture.
Fall is coming to Sacramento with the weather cooling down to the mid-70s and low 80s with the potential for just a touch of rain.
What’s up in your neck of the woods?