Ridgefield NWR 05-28-11

I ignored the cool, grey, blahhhh weather and went up to Ridgefield this afternoon.  I saw some neat things but it was rather dark and my photos aren't the best.  Oh geez, Mr. X. might have to put his two cents in about them! 

First off, I finally got to see the Killdeer chicks!!


They are so freakin cute and look just like mini Killdeer.  How rad!  Here's mama (or papa?) with I think a chick underneath her...



After this cuteness overload I found some coot babies too.  I love coot babies.  Almost as much as grebe babies.  They were a bit far away but still awesome.


I happened upon a raccoon trying to decide whether or not to climb a tree... 

 

He didn't climb it.  I saw a couple hawks doing something I don't see often...


Just hanging out together.  That was about it for the afternoon.  Good times!

Comments

  1. Did the Killdeer try to lure you away from her chicks? I'll never forget the time a mother walked away acting like she had a broken wing and I followed her actually thinking she was hurt.

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  2. How cute! Both the Killdeer and the Coot babies are adorable. Great sighting. Cool shots of the raccoon and the pair of Red-tailed hawks. You are having some great birding days adding to your list.

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  3. Funny! You were probably going in as I was going out! We saw different things too. Cute baby killdeer! We need to connect and go birding...

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  4. Killdeer chicks are so damn cute!

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  5. Struck at rich with alot of luvin going all around including the photographer. Nice photos. The killdeer chicks strut around like they own the place. Even on construction sites. Runny around the yellow iron as it digs near by. Fearles!! Nice photos.

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  6. @Birdnerd- Ha I don't know! Someone named Mr. X (anonymous commenter) left a comment on my last post about me sharpening some photos too much. I wouldn't care if it was someone I knew, but the fact that it was anonymous annoyed me. Oh well, I just stopped allowing anonymous comments and problem solved!

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  7. I've started playing around with sharpening and then applying noise reduction. Seems a bit like a contradiction, but the noise reduction seems to remove some of the speckles that excessive sharpening produces. Helps with heavy cropping too.
    Isn't it cute when the chicks gather under the parent!

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  8. It's exciting to see that you were able to observe and photograph the Killdeer chicks. I was able to do the same a few weeks ago, but fear that they were all lost to Black-crowned Night-Herons that were much more active at the time. Mike B's behavioral account was personally observed. While I haven't been as fortunate as you to see the Moorhen chicks recently, I did catch sight of Mottled Duck chicks last week which was a first for me. Saw them again this morning and noted that they hadn't grown much in size. I would suspect that your photo critic has the best of intentions. It surprises me that you would not want to read all comments at your blog no matter how much you like them or not.

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  9. just catching up on some of the posts I missed over the holiday--AWESOME babies soooo cute and a Dandy Raccoon too!!
    Good idea no Xmen or Women allowed, I think I have that clicked too if ya gonna say something have the decency to introduce yourself right?
    ANYWAYS I never see anything wrong with your photos--they are always great in my book!! You are the bird whisperer!!!

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