recent adventures.

i went back to the ridgefield national wildlife refuge up in ridgefield, wa last weekend.  the first time i went was about a month ago and it was a great experience...

here are the sandhill cranes i had to use ALL of my zoom to even know were there... thankfully a nice older man pointed them out to me and offered me his binoculars to watch them.  i really need a pair of my own, but i'm holding out for christmas.

here is a wonderful great egret that refused to fly away as i fumbled with my camera...

not far from the great egret was this great blue heron in my favorite position- don't know why but it always reminds me of a penguin...

here is an american bittern... i had never seen one before and i thought he was cool looking.

i saw several red-tailed hawks, but have yet to find a good way to capture them with my camera... i'm still learning and this is the best picture i took of one...

my second trip up to ridgefield was different but still a lot of fun...

looks like green-winged teal ducks..

i feel like i see great blue herons all the time now, but they never get old.  i love dinosaurs and when they walk they remind of dinosaurs...

i believe this is a young-ish red-tailed hawk?

the sound of all these canada geese is just incredible.  this refuge is known for the dusky race of canada geese... just about all of these guys landed in that field in front of those trees...

a rough-legged hawk.  it was so freakin far away that this is the best picture i could get...

nutria!

a northern harrier?

this one i know... the red-winged blackbird..  love their sound.