It’s been a while since I posted much - getting through the Europe posts and getting through the over 3,000 photos I took on my proper camera in Europe has taken a lot of time. This will be a sortish, photo-heavy post of a recent trip to Reifel. We got very lucky with birds of prey on this trip - eagles, hawks and an owl! We also made a short stop at the farm on Westham Island, which was all decked out for Halloween.

Alex was in town for a visit, so we thought we would subject her to coming to Reifel with us. Maybe we’ll turn her into a birder too? I did manage to convert Jus after all. Stranger things have happened. It was a n overcast day, but we avoided any rain, so that was a positive. Right away, we were off to a good start with sandhill cranes in the front pond. In the big pond just inside the entrance, there were a lot of blue herons and lots of sandpipers. It was looking promising.

Yes, it’s just a mallard, but they are still quite beautiful.

Right near the parking lot, there was this huge patch of mushrooms.

There was a big flock sandpipers - they are tough to ID, but I think they are short-billed dowitchers.

A cool wasp nest up in a maple tree.

Juvenile golden-crowned sparrow.

There were a huge number of herons out today. This was the closest/best posed.

The red-winged blackbirds are getting pretty calm around people.

The highlight of the day was definitely the barred owl that was sitting at the trail intersection. Sadly, it was back in the trees, so there are a ton f small branches in the way. BUt still a great sighting!

After watching the owl for a while, we left it be and headed into the inner ponds. There were some interesting birds to be found.

Shoveler

Male hooded merganser

I think this is a lesser yellowlegs

More of the dowitchers (I think).

The flock of sandhills did a few flyovers.

As we got back towards the front entrance, we had an eagle in the bid trees and a few more good sightings.

BAld eagles are pretty common at Reifel.

One of the sandhills flying overhead.

I’ve not seen the female red-winged blackbirds in this colour pattern before.

There was another immature golden-crowned sparrow in the grass near the entrance.

After getting in the truck and starting to drive out, we noticed a red-tailed hawk sitting in a tree near the entrance!

On the way in, we had seen some snow geese off in the distance. As we drove to the farm on Westham Island, there was a massive flock in the field across the road. Of course, they all blasted off into the sky just as I got nearby.

We made a brief stop at the farm - it was so busy! But it’s always nice to see this time of year, as they have great pumpkin displays. We wandered a bit, bought some veggies for the week and called it a day. It was a very productive trip!