Reifel Bird Sanctuary
To get us started, Reifel brought out several Anna’s waging war. It’s the season for males to stake out territories, and we could see several of the little bastards zipping hither and yon in furious dogfights, occasionally stopping to drink or resting on the wire fence by the feeders.
That is, the same wire fence that’s pretty much right under visitors’ noses, so I got some great photo ops! I love the deep pink-violet iridescence here. The light was wrong for a full-on shiny pink gorget, but these guys are pretty no matter what the angle!
There were lots of blackbirds around, too. That’s not a super special occurrence, but one stood so proud and tall I couldn’t help taking his picture!
Good news: the Sandhill Crane family is still around and doing well. I haven’t seen the babies since September, and they’ve changed quite a bit! First, their beaks are a nice shade of brown, unlike the off-peach they used to have, indicating (so I’m told) that they’re hardier and will let them forage more kinds of food. Most excitingly, their red “mask” is starting to show! I’ve never taken pictures of a crane in transition like that.
Eyes are still the same brown as before. Apparently that won’t start shifting to orange until spring.
Mallards can always be relied on for amazing glamour shots.
There was actually something to see in the east-facing bird blind. Normally all we see is a big slough with maybe a few duckies and such in the distance…
This time we got a heron. Not exotic or anything, but it looked quite lovely, backlit against the thin ice. For a moment, it looked like it was about to stab the water but then it held off. They do that sometimes, though I’m pretty sure it could have stabbed through the ice.
I always say, you can never have too many chickadees.
Juncos are not easy to shoot, with their hoppy twitchiness and tiny size, but this one was there for me!
As did this towhee!
Now, pintails usually keep their distance from humans, much more than Mallards or Wood Ducks. But when they do deign to get close close, they they serve class and elegance like no other duck!
Hey I haven’t taken coot feet photos in a while!
Piper Spit
Oh look, my camera seems to be pointing at another pintail. Whatever shall I do?
Not a blackbird, but definitely a black bird, bathing in late afternoon light.
ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park
The skies looked promising, so I swung by ƛ̓éxətəm (Tlahutum) to see how the sunset would look over Coquitlam River. I was hoping for something like that time last January, but it was… fine? Not sure what was missing, exactly. Is it the angle? Is it some special mix of the sun and clouds? Planning sunset shots sometimes feels like trying to capture fireflies.
