i decided to go for an early morning stroll through the tualatin river national wildlife refuge today. one of those bank thermometers along 99-w said it was 27 degrees. because of the cold i only did a quick hike around, but got some good pictures in the short time.
mostly northern pintails from what i can tell...
across the water i saw these guys:
a nice pair of bald eagles!
did i mention it was freezing? it looked like a winter wonderland even though it was just frost...
i assume this is a blue heron...
a couple of canada geese... of course.
a very patient golden-crowned sparrow...
when i returned to the overlook the ducks had begun walking on the ice...
a northern harrier.
that was about it for tualatin river. in the afternoon i headed to ridgefield nwr... on the road between I-5 and the refuge i saw this fellow:
a red-tailed hawk.
at the refuge i had some luck with mammals...
a pair of nutria....snuggling?
and a pair of river otters!! i was very excited, but not as excited as jake..
so freakin cute.
yeah, i'm just going to call everything a red-tailed hawk today...
i think this is a song sparrow.
an immature red-tailed hawk?
(side note: why is there an ant on my laptop keyboard???)
now if this guy isn't a red-tailed hawk then i don't know what is...
a rough-legged hawk? perhaps the same one i saw before that i mistook for a bald eagle (at a much further distance)... here it is in flight:
posing in front of the sunset...
sandhill cranes flying by...
an elusive american bittern..
tundra swans?
immature tundra swans..
snow geese, tundra swans, canada geese, ducks...
ok i think that's everything from today!
the moon was still pretty clear for 8:15 a.m. much of the water down there was frozen so the birds were mostly confined to the non-frozen parts.
mostly northern pintails from what i can tell...
across the water i saw these guys:
did i mention it was freezing? it looked like a winter wonderland even though it was just frost...
that was about it for tualatin river. in the afternoon i headed to ridgefield nwr... on the road between I-5 and the refuge i saw this fellow:
at the refuge i had some luck with mammals...
(side note: why is there an ant on my laptop keyboard???)
ok i think that's everything from today!
My you were busy yesterday! Your photos are great! I was told that I should consider all hawks to be Red-tails unless I can see other traits to say otherwise. It does seem that they are prevelant! I do think that one is a Rough-legged too. Every New Years I go to Ridgefield and we always see them there. What a fun day!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great load of photos! Only the first hawk is not a red tail - it's a female harrier. The snow geese are immature tundra swans with the pink bills. Snow geese are probably half the size of a swan so they'd stand out that way. I love that you saw otters and a bittern. You have great wildlife karma.
ReplyDeleteActually I think it's an immature harrier....not sure on the gender.
ReplyDeleteGreat shot of the sandhill cranes - and well done on the bittern too!
ReplyDelete