Wednesday, October 5, 2016

So much to see and do! Part 1 - Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

With Viva being adopted we are taking a foster dog break.  This is for a variety of reason of which some is due to wanting to take some road trips with D'light and it's just easier to do that with less dogs.  Another big reason is that I'm making it a priority to work with Catty on transitioning her car riding from sitting in the front of the car to riding in a crate.  This will take time and practice since Catty has car anxiety which creates a number of issues for her.  I have a plan in place which I'm going to blog about in the coming weeks. My hope is that if she can travel less stressed she can then go more places with us. 
 
So here's Part 1 of our most recent road trip.  It was my sister's 40th birthday and D'light and I headed south to Hood River, Oregon to wish her a happy birthday.  Since we were making the trek I decided to take an extra day off work to experience more of all the amazing sights around us.  My mom also lives in Hood River and she was happy to join us on some of our adventures.
 
D'light and I headed out before dawn on Saturday with our first stop at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.  My sister's birthday weekend corresponded with Birdfest and Bluegrass celebration  So, I signed up for a 2 hour guided birdwalk. There was also going to be a camera guide who was going share information abut cameras to use while birding.  No dogs are allowed out of cars so D'light slept, getting ready for our hike after Ridgefield.  I arrived with my small and older point and shoot camera and lucky for me the camera guide had a fancy DSL camera that she let me use on the walk.  There were only four us on the tour and it was fantastic! Here are some of the pictures I took with the fancy borrowed camera.
 
 
The very first bird we saw was an Egret!
 
I was so excited to see this beautiful bird.  The camera and lens was amazing as this egret was really far off.
 
 
 
 
 Canadian geese and you could hear them coming!
 
 
 
Stellar's jay with a meal!
 
 
 
 
I think this was a red tailed hawk
 
 
 
 
Egret looking for a snack
 
 
 

 
Great blue heron
 
 
 
 
Another egret high above us
 
 
 
 
Egrets are beautiful in flight
 
 
 
 
No idea what this bird is but, I like the picture
 

 
 
Another egret
 

 
 
More geese in flight
 
 
 
 
Egret eating with other waterfowl
 
 
 
 
Some neat waterfowl which I cannot remember what the guide said they were.
 

 
 
I turned in the camera then had a nice walk back to the car.  This is just one tiny part of Ridgefield Refuge.  This is an amazing place and well worth many trips! 



 
 
Bridge over the train tracks to get to the wetlands
 



 
 
Time to head out and D'light and I drive a couple hours to our hike so stay tuned!
 
 

      
 

2 comments:

  1. The ducks are widgeon. Love your photos!

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    1. Thanks for the ID! This was a lot of fun and lucky for me to capture some great photos. The camera I was using was a completely different experience than my point and shoot :)

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