Great Blue Heron

An embarrassment of riches today after visiting the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge north of us. I REALLY wanted to show you something different than this heron, but this is a pretty thing and they are so cooperative. They stand still, mostly. They pose nicely. They accommodate you by being close to the road. The perfect model. So here it is! Ta Dah!

Now let me tell you about the refuge. This is a pretty big National Refuge and they have two different areas to visit. One is a trail that is open year 'round and we have been on that. The second is an "auto route" that is a little over 4 miles in a big loop that takes you around this large wetland area. From May through September there is a parking area where you can get out and go on a 1.2 mile trail. But this time of year only the auto route is open and the rules are "Stay In The Car". Except for one place where there is a rest stop and a short walk to a small wooden bird blind kind of thing. That's where you can stretch your legs. It's $3 a car and you can circle around and around all day if you want. We went twice around the loop.

And what a pretty day it was today too! Blue skies to show off the bare trees, sun shine to glint off the water and not much breeze to stir even a feather.

Now you have to understand that we had to STAY IN THE CAR, but we do have a sun roof. So, when a lovely opportunity to see a hawk with his lunch presented itself, the ONLY WAY I could see this was to get on my knees on my seat, and try to get up through the sun roof and get this darn hawk. There was a car in front of us, and Bill was trying to get in closer. The tree and bird were located to my left side and I didn't have the advantage of being on the left side of the car, so I tried to get the shot as best as I could. Sadly, those shots are slightly out of focus. Can't imagine why. I wanted that to be my blip for the day, but you can see it here.

The first thing we saw were nutria. Nutria is a rodent native to South America. Another imported thing that shouldn't be here. It was brought here by enterprising folk who wanted to raise them for fur. Now they are out and about and happy as pigs in mud, wrecking havoc on native habitat. I really, really wanted to see the albino nutria that lives somewhere in the Refuge, but we didn't spot her. Perhaps these are her young? They were right along side the road, happily munching on grass.

Tundra Swan call this place home in the winter. It appears when we were there it was nap time.

Canada Geese live all over, but they do love Ridgefield NWR as there are thousands roaming about. Caught this group heading somewhere.

Bill spotted this guy in the water beside the road on his side. I had to do gyrations to get this quick shot. I don't know anything about ducks but we do have bird books. This is the American Wigeon and I was so glad he spotted something besides the many American Coots that were in abundance.

On the second go around of the loop we stopped at the duck blind which didn't have much close by to see...until.....we saw an eagle soaring overhead. He was quickly joined by another and then another! There were three of them putting on a quick show for us. Yeah, just try to focus on a flying American Bald Eagle soaring overhead. Another fantastic shot...out of focus. Bill thought it was fantastic because, and I quote "hey, you can tell it's an eagle!"

We did see several hawks. This one had his tree staked out.

The scenery was just gorgeous. Winter, so of course the grass was brown. But, still. It was really a treat to see all that open marsh land with the cat tails growing along the edges of the water ways.

The geese put up quite a ruckus when they decided to move. Large flocks would decide to take off and go to another spot, just for the heck of it I guess. We saw this group take off through the trees.

So that was our day. Very nice. We picked the perfect day.

Have a good day Blippers, see ya later!!