March 28th, 2016

Today I saw something pretty unexpected when I came down my apartment stairs!

A pair of ducks!

(I know, my phone isn't the best thing to use to take photos of wildlife, but it was all I had.)

And some purple flowers!

Hope you have a great night!!

January 31st, 2015

Went out to Rood Bridge Park, and I finally got a nice photo of a Common Merganser!

Jen and I also found out that these are Gadwalls:

I got a better photo of the little hummingbird that guards his territory.  We are pretty sure he is an Anna's hummingbird.

We found a boot, not sure how someone lost this....

Here are the other photos from today:

Hope you have a great night!

January 15th, 2015

The world was hushed today, as if it were waiting for something.

Even the Stellar's Jays were silent.

The tress were still.

Nothing disturbed the surface of the pond.

The ducks sat waiting.

The sparrows even stop their song.

Only the tiny spotted towhee made small scritching noises as she foraged though the dead leaves, on her one good leg.

The air grew heavy with anticipation of the coming rain.



I barely made it back to the care in time.

Hope you have a great night!

January 14th, 2015

I had this feeling that I needed to go back to Summerlake Park, so I did. I am really glad I went.

Yesterday, I saw these chew marks but didn't photography them, but I did think, beaver!! I was very excited at the prospect of seeing a beaver. I looked around the area but didn't see a dam.

I asked Jen what she thought. She told me that nutria will chew trees like beavers. I had no idea.  I kept an eye out for nutria around the lake, but I should have looked behind me. This nutria walked down the hill and went though all the duck like I wasn't even standing there.

It exited the water just a few feet from where I stood and just looked at me.

It seems to have a small wound near its eye.

Yeah, I guess those could chew down a tree....

It turns out the Great Blue Heron was not a statue after all. It was only pretending so it could find some food.

I saw these little birds yesterday and didn't get a good photo of them. Turns out this isn't some sort of duck! It is an American Coot.

It has creepy red eyes.....

These are male American Wigeons.

I think this is a little song sparrow.

And this might be a non-breeding male house sparrow.

The crows were very active at Summerlake. The other parks I have been too haven't had as many crows.

He was yelling at a cat on the porch, the cat didn't care.....

This is my favorite picture from today!

There were many American Robins out today!

And this Varied Thrush was digging though the leaves with his best girl.

Jen said it was pretty rare to see these birds out in the open.

It was such a neat trip to the park. I feel so lucky that I get to interact with wild animals so close to my house!. It is amazing to have these parks in urban areas.

Hope you have a great night!

January 7th, 2015

I had a grand plan of getting up early and going out into the fog that was forecast for our area. I failed.  I didn't get up in time, I did however, get this photo from my balcony.

I went back to the pond at Rood Bridge Park today to try to get some better duck photos.

There were six ducks.... why were there only six ducks, you ask.

This was patrolling the pond.

(Please excuse the terribleness of these photos, I only have a 300mm lens, and it was very far away.)

Here are some ducks:

This guys black bill makes me laugh for some reason!

Even if my duck hunting didn't go as planned, it was a beautiful afternoon!

and this was my view driving home!

Yes, I did pull over to take this photo!

Hope you have a great night!!