Yesterday was a nice day to visit the refuge..no human traffic but unfortunately not much wildlife traffic. But enough to make it interesting, plus just being there is relaxing.
Pheasants were out in force! I saw several males in the various bushes along the way, and on the way out I watched 4 of the males in the road doing what appeared to be fighting. Unfortunately I was quite a ways away and the photos are challenging. But I’ll show you what I have.
Lots of Western Grebes - noisy little buggers - and a couple of groups of pelicans practicing synchronized swimming as they fished
Enjoy!
This guy waited until I saw him and then waited until I took his photo. Beautiful!
Here’s the pheasants in the road..I’m not sure what the dance means, whether they are fighting or mating!
Here are the Pelicans -- first preparing to fish, then fishing. Note the followers in the top photo - Western
grebes and ducks - they catch a lot of what the Pelicans stir up..
An unknown duck..
The Great Blue Heron - waiting patiently by the stream...
A stern-looking beautiful hawk, tentatively identified as a Red-tailed Hawk..they have a large number of very different colored Morphs..
