I headed out for a foggy morning visit to Smith & Bybee Lakes. It was a dark and mostly quiet walk, not great for bird photography. But I was glad I pressed on to the end of the path, where I came upon a large congregation of egrets in the wetlands. The fog was lifting as I returned to my car, so I wound my way to Vanport Wetlands, skirting a tatoo art event at the Expo. There I found the mallard family I saw as nestlings during the summer, and shorebirds digging in the mud flats. (I blogged my previous visit to Vanport, including a summary of the history of the area. Since then, I learned that the Robert Hunter lyric “wake of the flood” references his childhood when he lived in Vanport the year after the great flood.)