Big Day

Today my friend Tori and I journeyed to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge in Washington... I had heard so many great things about it and was so glad to finally get there! What an awesome birding spot! Here are some of the pics:


Song sparrows everywhere


spotted towhee


cedar waxwing


tons of cinnamon teals- life bird!


blurry yellow headed blackbird


painted turtles basking


great horned owl squinting at us


tree swallow leaving the nest


love that cinnamon teal


savannah sparrow- another life bird!


red winged black bird screaming


finally a visual on the common yellowthroat!


great egret stalking


blurry juvenile wood duck

Other life birds included redhead ducks, Wilson's snipe, bushtit, and what we think were blue-winged teal. There were other interesting birds like white pelicans, baby pied-billed grebes, killdeer, mystery flycatchers and the blooping of a bittern. Great day.

Back at home, the breeding scene is in high gear. I snapped this young western scrub jay on the driveway:



the chickadee family is doing well... mom and dad are very busy catching caterpillars and other juicy bugs for the kids and bringing them home:






Mom or dad after a bath in the creek, bummer about the leaf in the way. Chickadees can be hard to shoot because the white often gets over-exposed.

I love having the little family so close by- the parents are pretty used to me lurking now. When I put my ear to the house, the babies' voices are starting to take on that raspy little chickadee tone. Wonder when they will fledge...