Tag Archives: rain

A Day for Boolies

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A barn swallow rests on a snag at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

While I do photograph on sunny days, at least early and late when the light is nice, make no mistake that rainy days at Ridgefield are my favorite. On this day in mid-May, despite many birds migrating through, I arrived early and didn’t see another car for the first two hours, and the rest of the day traffic was much lower than normal. When the showers got heavy this barn swallow paused from hunting for insects above Long Lake, perching on one of the many snags in the lake, and let me show off Ridgefield in the rain.

Winter & Spring

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A coyote stands in a frosty field at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

I try to show the weather in my wildlife pictures whenever possible as I’m fascinated by how the animals have to adapt to whatever conditions the day holds. I’m especially excited to head to Ridgefield when the weather reports predict a hard frost as it rarely gets cold enough to turn the meadows white. But when it does, I want to be there as soon as the gates open so I can try to find a subject in the frosted landscape before the sun melts it all away.

There are other hardcore birders and photographers who also are there when the gates open, at least when it isn’t raining, so it can be hard to get off on my own. Such was the case on the morning when I and several others came across this coyote. I took a few quick pictures before moving on to let others have a look, unfortunately the pictures didn’t come out as sharp as I would have liked.

A coyote stands in a wet field at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

I was off on my own on a rainy spring day when I spotted this coyote through a tunnel of green grass, a look I love, and had a few seconds before it slipped into the tall grass. At first glance I thought there might be something wrong with it, it seemed gaunt with patchy fur. But on closer look its fur was soaked and clinging to its skin, and a look at its belly made me wonder if it had recently given birth.

Ruddy Rain

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A male ruddy duck prepares to dive on a rainy day at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

I’ve always wondered where ruddy ducks get their name. On the one hand, it’s rather obvious as males in breeding plumage have reddish bodies. But on the other hand, so do other ducks. There is a distinctive and glorious feature of the breeding male that wasn’t chosen for the name, but for whatever reason we didn’t end up with blue-billed ducks.

It was the blue bill that attracted me to these small ducks when I first saw them in a zoo, and I was delighted to find them out in the wild when we moved to the Northwest. During the winter at Ridgefield they are not in breeding plumage and tend to stay at a far distance from the road, but come spring they return to glory and a few are often found close in on South Quigley Lake as the males and females begin to pair up. The trick then is to find a clear view into the lake, which by late spring is mostly obstructed with grasses and cattails.

On this rainy day I parked in a good location and hoped the ruddies would come to me, as I had many times before, but this time I got lucky.

Sometimes I Think Somebody Up There Likes Me

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An American bittern stands upright in the pouring rain at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Believe it or not, this is not the same bittern from the previous post. I took this picture 20 minutes later on the other side of the refuge between Horse and Long Lakes. I can’t say I haven’t seen bitterns in this spot before, and in fact I was actively looking for them here as several had been in the area on earlier visits.

The Wonderful Wet

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A radar map of rain over the Pacific Northwest

The iPhone is one of the best devices I’ve ever owned. One little thing I love is the ability to set multiple repeating alarms. I have one for 7:00 a.m. on weekdays to get me up for work, and another for 5:00 a.m. on the weekends to get me up for Ridgefield. Another thing I love is the ability to carry around weather maps in my pocket. And oh how I loved the weather map on the morning of May 15th!

I love photographing wildlife in the rain (and snow and frost and fog) and the beauty of the auto tour is I can do it from the relative warmth of a dry car seat. Not everyone shares my love for the rain of course and I didn’t see another car on the refuge for the first couple of hours. It rained much of the day and traffic on the tour was fairly low despite being in the midst of spring migration.

I kept an eye on the weather maps during the day to try to be at a favorite location when the best weather (in this case, the heaviest rain) hit. Even so, I got caught out by a sudden downpour. I had just finished driving past the lakes and started onto the large meadows at the end of the tour where there isn’t much to see at this time of year. So I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw this bittern in the tall grass of the meadow near Schwartz Lake, where I’ve not seen bitterns before, the green grass nicely showing off the pouring rain.

I stayed all day from sunrise to sunset (assuming there was a sunrise and sunset), you’ll see a number of pictures in the coming days and weeks of the Ridgefield rain.

An American bittern stands upright in the pouring rain at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge