Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Just up the road from Portland on I-5 is a little known gem of a wildlife photography location.  Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is a beautiful area along the Columbia River that was the site of a former Native American village.  Lot's of geese, shorebirds, hardwood forest dwellers and mammals.  I spent an afternoon on May 2nd of this year, (a little late for best bird counts) cruising through in the convertible with the lens hung out!



Ruddy Duck





Pied Bill Grebe




Cinnamon Teal Pair





Beautiful Northern Shoveler Male

And now for the Mystery Critter.  You know where I saw it and otherwise this one needs no clues.

Yellow Warbler

Yellow Rumped (Audubon) Warbler

Marsh Wren


Common Yellowthroat



And one seriously ugly haircut on a Red-Winged Blackbird!!


Peace Out

A Walk in the New England Spring

In and around Windsor, Vermont are many, many jewels.  The history and natural beauty are remarkable, and one place where those two are combined is in the amazing village of Woodstock.  Once owned almost exclusively by the Rockefeller family, it has been carefully preserved and cultivated to retain a quintessential New England spirit.  One of the many gems of Woodstock is the Marsh - Billings - Rockefeller Farm National Historic Park.  It was there that we decided to do a Saturday hike with Chelle, Brig, Anders, Maddie and Eddie this last April.  The snow was just then melting, and The Pogue, a lake up in the hills above the farmstead was not yet clear of ice.  It was muddy, exhilarating and really fun .  With Chelle on the map, we had no worries!  Brig had the "bazooka"



On the way up the mountain we heard and finally saw several Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers pounding away.





When we got to the lake we had a picnic while Eddie looked for and found all of the puddles.



All around the sunny edges of the "Pogue" were the most beautiful Painted Turtles.






I did get a shot of the crew before we left the lake, but Maddie was too busy chewing snow to smile!





On the way down the hill we heard another woodpecker pounding away and thought we would see our Sapsucker friends.  Instead we saw this nice little Downy male working the trees for bugs just starting to hatch in the bark.




A far off Hermit Thrush was singing it's Vermont birdsong.  We managed to get a look at it and got a couple of shots.



And down a bit lower we had the chance to watch this White Breasted Nuthatch busy building it's nest.






One thing I can really say for sure is that Eddie loves his Grandma Paula.



As we came down back into Woodstock, we saw an amazing sight.  I think I will make this the mystery critter for this post.  Remember this was seen in April in Vermont!!!!!







One last little story.  My last post had some birds from behind WalMart in Lebanon, New Hampshire.  After our hike we went to get some grub at the Burger King across from WalMart. But we thought we would cruise the back parking lot quickly before we ate.  A few days before this we had been over at the "Blow Me Down" pond at St Gauden's, and seen a dead beaver which had appeared from under a snow bank.  The kids named him "Dave the Dead ", and we talked about him for days.  Behind WalMart we saw his cousin Barry, who was still alive, and he really didn't care that we were there!



Another great memory with a great family.

Birds of WalMart

One of the great secrets of our day is how many birds can be seen in our own backyards.  Walmart has a bunch of those backyards all over the country, and many of them contain wetlands that were created when the excavation was done for the project.  Many jurisdictions have required wetland mitigation as a condition of the development of shopping centers where these big box stores are located, and these can and often are a gold mine for birds.  They are particularly good for photography as the birds have gotten used to humans. A good example is how close to these Kingfishers I was able to get.

This particular WalMart is just off of Interstate 89 in Lebanon, New Hampshire.  It is in a larger shopping center, but the best spot to bird is just behind the WalMart.  These photo's were taken in April of this year.

Common Mergansers are really common this time of year.  The Female's of this species (above) are in many ways more impressive than the males.

For the Hooded Merganser however, the male is really spectacular, and even though the female is nice as well, nothing quite matches the hood of a Male Hooded.

I also had some Green Herons and Kingbirds in this same location in the summer of 2009.  See the post here.

Here is the female Hooded.  I really like the way she can also puff up her head feathers.

 

Here is a pair of Hooded's relaxing, and below is a common display when the males are competing for a female.  This guy was really trying, but I think she had already made up her mind.

 So this was one of the fun wildlife exchanges I witnessed at WalMart outside the store. ( There are obviously plenty of wildlife experiences inside many of the stores of course.)

Kingfisher is sitting on a stick, and Grackle comes by to talk.  Kingfisher is busy hunting and not interested.

Grackle pretends not to be troubled by this and feigns indifference.

Really wants to talk however and just can't help himself.

After a very long wait, the Kingfisher turns to engage, but the Grackle is coy, and doesn't want to look too eager.

Not sure what the Grackle said, (one of the many languages I don't speak), bit whatever it was, Kingfisher wasn't interested.

Which just got the Grackle even more determined to get his point across.  

Kingfisher is honestly trying to give Grackle a chance, but the guy just isn't very interesting.

And so it is that on sticks and stumps behind Walmart things work like they do on buses, trains and elevators.

 

I just love birding (Walmart)!