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Ridgefield NWR, February 2024

I’ve been visiting Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge since our early days living in the Pacific Northwest. (Photos from many previous trips can be found on the Locations page on this site.) It is an amazing place, in any season and weather. This visit was no exception. On a dry and mild winter day that eventually crept up into the 60s (!), we arrived early, drove the 4 mile auto tour (average speed 3 mph), and then relocated to the headquarters to get some walking in: first, the Carty Lake trail up to the boundary where the trail closes for the nesting season, and then the year-round Oaks to Wetlands Trail loop. A morning filled with wonders! Here are some of my photos. You can also read about it on Nancy’s blog.

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6 responses

  1. Nancy Friedland Avatar
    Nancy Friedland

    Excellent! Didn’t realize how many different species we saw!

    Reply
    1. Alan Avatar
      Alan

      Yes! And classes of species: birds, mammals, reptiles, plants … and we heard amphibians. Lots of life!

      Reply
  2. Bonnie Avatar
    Bonnie

    Wow! You had quite the variety and blue skies to boot! So envious of the bittern sighting. I went looking specifically for that and never saw one. Beautiful photos with stunning detail. I’ve never seen a varied thrush there, a favorite of mine. Well done!

    Reply
    1. Alan Avatar
      Alan

      Bittern hunting is thanks to you, Bonnie Rae! I had seen one in that general area last year, so I was on alert. I’ve been trying a backwards camouflage approach: focusing on the combo of grasses that would make a bittern invisible. It’s a great surprise every time! The thrush was a treat too; we’d been seeing flashes of dusky red that definitely wasn’t a robin, but couldn’t ID it until I saw the photos on my computer. No mating eagles for us, but Ridgefield is never disappointing.

      Reply
  3. Louie Avatar
    Louie

    Nice shot of the bittern! I’ve only seen that bird once. Love the puffed up kestrel too. I’d live to go birding with you and Nancy someday.

    Reply
    1. Alan Avatar
      Alan

      A bird outing together would be so fine! We’d have to do two: one up here, and one down there. From your blog, we share a lot of local birds, but there would be plenty of new ones too. Looking forward to it!

      -Alan

      Reply