Murph and I spent some time at the refuge today and had a great time. We saw two tremendous redtails on the way in, flushed a buck and doe while hiking, saw herons, pelicans, ducks, grebes (pied-bill and Clark) and harrier hawks. Oh and we flushed a pheasant - he was 5 feet from me so I lost a few years and Murph has his hackles up as it startled him also. Murph is not a hunting dog - unless whatever it is shows up at the end of his nose!
First off, tho', we encountered this quail on a fence. I believe it is a Gambel quail, but find it difficult to distinguish from a California quail. Whichever, it is a very beautiful bird!
Then on to the pelicans. They were sitting out in a large pond, and the two birds on the left seemed to be playing a game of pushing each other off the island, then run around behind and force the other one off! They were exceedingly cute and playful and these two pictures are just part of a neat sequence of activity. The one on the right on the small island never moved during all the activity other than to wave it's beak around!
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