The 12th was a Sunday, and it was dreary outside. I had spent Saturday in other pursuits and decided that despite the conditions I'd head out to Reifel. I wasn't in much of a hurry, though, and didn't get started until about 11:00.

Just outside Ladner, on my way out to the refuge, I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a light standard. This is a fairly common occurance.

The rest of the way out to Reifel was uneventful.

Once in the park, I quickly came upon a few of Reifel's dependable subjects, the Sandhill Cranes. They were hanging out near Fuller's Slough, which marks the first branching of the trails as you enter. There were people and ducks and cranes all milling around, and it took a little while to get an angle that isolated the cranes from most of the crowd.

At normal viewing distances, the cranes had looked clean and well-groomed. The close-up paints a pretty different picture, doesn't it?

Well, it got too busy there by the slough and so I headed deeper in. It was a slow day, bird-wise. I came upon a group of five or six Mallards on the path that runs along the east side of the refuge. One of the Mallards caught my eye, because he had a blue bill. Most male mallards have a yellow bill (and the females have orange).

There's a hint of yellow in his bill, though. I don't know what caused this guy's bill to be blue. There are several other duck species whose standard model comes equipped with a blue bill, so maybe a small mutation can cause blue bill proteins to be made rather than yellow. Or maybe there's some crossbreeding in his lineage.

Either way, he was a pretty friendly little guy, and he kept coming over to see me whenever I tried to take photos of him. With the lens I use, I can't focus on anything closer than about two meters, so we danced a little dance: I'd back away a few steps, then drop to one knee to take some photos. He'd zero in on me and come waddling over. We kept repeating this, with me getting one or two chances at photos each round. In this way, I eventually got a few good poses from him, and then I moved on.

Just past Mr. Blue-bill, there was a stump that someone had put some birdseed on, and a few Black-capped Chickadees were stopping by to pick up goodies. This one caught my eye because he was banded. I recently had a conversation with someone who was wondering if they banded small birds.

The answer is yes, I guess—they just use small bands.

Near the stump, there were a couple of House Finches eating berries from a tree. This guy has just pulled his bill out of a berry, and it's dripping with the juicy yellow fruit.

And here's one preening. As we saw above, maybe she should do this more often.

Leaving Reifel, I decided to head over to Beach Grove Park. On the way, I spotted a rough nest up at a branch point in a tree. Above the nest perched a Red-tailed Hawk, my second of the day.

Over at Beach Grove, I wandered into the woods and soon heard a familiar tapping sound. I followed the tapping to its source, a female Hairy Woodpecker.

Males look pretty much the same, except that they have a patch of red feathers on the back of their head.

One of the main reasons I went to Beach Grove was to try to get photos of the pair of Great Horned Owls that live there. I found the owls with no problem. Each of them was perched in a shady area up high in one of their favorite trees.

Here's one, doing an imitation of a giant pinecone. Too bad those ears give 'im away.

Owls are tough subjects, so I'm happy with what I got. I know these owls are resident, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to get more shots of them in the future.

Needing to go do some preening,
Tom