The day started out with a bit of blue sky and sunshine, allowing me an opportunity to walk the 6-acre property we are staying at. Soon enough the rain came and back inside I went.
Here's a few of the sights I found on my walk, plus a photo of feral pigs found on the way to our friends..
A warm and wet first day on the Big Island, something over 6 inches of rain for the 24 hours. A couple of breaks in the weather allowed some photography outside, catching what we can.
Here's some I liked from the day..
The Mynah bird..an import from India..
A sunny start but cloudy later..I miss the sun. But we take what we can get and try our best.
No harriers, no eagles, no red-tailed hawks. Lots of Great Blue Herons, ducks and Tundra swans. Even though the swans are quite a distance away across the ice, you can hear them clearly. Fortunately I caught a group flying.
Northern shovelers are pretty and quite cute as they look for food on land. A few Pintails added a soft beauty to the day. And then the juvenile Black-crowned Night heron bundled up in a manner that made it hard to see if it was real!
Enjoy!
A cold but sunny day at the refuge...quite a bit of activity around. Harriers of course..they are always moving around and playing, or is it hunting?
A couple of eagles, Black-crowned Night Herons both adult and juvenile, Red-tailed Hawks, Ducks..Northern Shoveler, Golden Eye, Mallard, Kestrels, and a Great Blue heron on the way out..
Lovely to be there..
I wandered out to the refuge to see what was up...not much. One lonely eagle on the ice, one Great Blue Heron, a couple of Kestrels and lots of Northern Harriers. It was a bit dreary, sunshine had abandoned us, still nice to be out though. Here's a few photos from the day...
Juvenile Red-tailed hawk
In mid-December we and the kids traveled to Manzanita for a week by the ocean. While we expected a lot of rain, we were rewarded with almost 4 days of sunshine! Quite amazing for that time of year and very welcome.
Here's a few shots from the trip..
