This past weekend Justine and I went out to Reifel to have a walk in the sunshine and see what was around. We’ve had so much rain this fall (after the drought that was the summer) that it was wonderful to see the sun for a whole weekend. It was a bit cold (close to freezing) but we’d take the sun!
Much like the last time I was at Refiel, there were a lot of herons in the big pond near the entrance. They were not as bunched up as last time, but there were some good shots to be had.
One of the many blue herons in the pond near the entrance.
There are a series of large trees that regularly have eagles. This trip, the eagle was preening and had a beak full of feathers.
Northern Flicker
In addition to the birds, there were a lot of the cool mushrooms about. There were lots of these red and white spotted amanita muscaria or fly agaric mushroom, a toxic psychoactive hallucinogenic fungus. Looks cool but don’t eat it!
Hooded merganser
The highlight of the day was not a bird, but a trio of otters! In one of the interior ponds, we saw three otters fishing. And catching and having lunch. One in particular had a pretty decent sized fish that he chowed down on, while sitting against the far bank of the pond.
Another highlight was a red-tailed hawk that was sitting out in a tree on the marsh. We watched him for a while, and it even did a short flight between a couple of trees to reposition.
A juvenile bald eagle
Belted kingfisher
As were getting closer to winter the number and types of ducks is increasing and starting to get much more interesting! It’s still not quite the high season, but it was nice to see a few different species that we hadn’t seen since the spring.
There were about a dozen Anna’s hummingbirds fighting over three feeders near the entrance.
We’re also seeing the first of the sandpipers and other shorebirds.
They had a whole set of very nicely done pumpkins for Halloween.
On the way back out, we made a quick stop to check out one of the last remaining pumpkin patches.