Owls and hawks are important predators, as well as house cats, weasels, coyotes, foxes, skunks, snakes, and the great blue heron.
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals description of the Townsend’s vole
Oh yes, and bitterns.
Tag Archives: Rest Lake
Hey You Voles! Get Off My Lawn!
Appearing to do its best cranky old man impersonation, this heron was just yawning on a cold winter morning. You can see frost on its shoulder and the frozen waters of Rest Lake behind it.
The Start of the Year
Pity the Townsend's vole, an important food source in the diet of a large variety of predators at Ridgefield
Although I failed in my quest to find a bittern in the frost on the last day of 2010, the first day of 2011 rewarded me with a bittern on the ice — a hunting bittern on the ice.
The day started out promising when I glimpsed a blacktail buck on the drive down through the canyon and onto the refuge at Ridgefield, but after putting on a show the day before the rest of the animals seemed to be sleeping in. While the early hours weren’t crowded, as the morning wore on the visitors picked up rapidly and the big lens attracted a small crowd whenever I stopped.
On the far side of the refuge, I like to drive slowly along Rest Lake to look for bitterns, so I pulled over to let an approaching car past so that I could move at my own pace. Even as I was pulling over I noticed this bittern down below in the frozen channel and settled in to watch. Within moments the bittern struck into the grass and brought out this terrified vole.
Bitterns often like to dunk their prey in the water and so it gingerly stepped down the rim of ice, struggling not to slip, and then dunked the vole into the water. Or tried to at least, but failed, since the water in this section was still frozen. It seemed mystified for a moment and stood motionless before eating its meal undunked.
After taking a few environmental portraits of the bittern on the ice, I moved ahead just slightly to another nice location and waited for the bittern to come past. But a Land Rover came up behind me and the couple got out of their car (a no-no on the auto tour during the winter) to set up their scope to view the distant ducks and swans.
Not surprisingly I didn’t see the bittern again.
When I got to the end of the auto tour, I was going to go around again but my heart sank when I saw a nearly solid line of cars between Horse and South Quigley Lakes. I learned my lesson from Christmas day, when I should have left when it got over-crowded but didn’t, and headed home.
Ellie got an extra walk and playtime in the park, and extra hedgehogging as well, so all-in-all a fantastic start to the year for everyone but the vole.
Neither bittern nor vole was happy with the outcome of this dunk attempt, but the vole got the worst of it
The End of the Year
Your world can flip from right-side-up to upside-down in a heart — or even wing — beat
I love to photograph Ridgefield in the rain but the last day of the year dawned sunny and cold. The cold was key as I had a chance at wildlife in frost, but so was the sunny as the chance would be brief.
Near the start of the auto tour a distant coyote limped across a frosty meadow. Not much else was going on as I drove all the way round to Rest Lake to look for the bitterns that had hunted there the past couple of weeks. The bitterns weren’t around so I settled in to watch the swans, eventually moving on to a nearby heron.
The sun was up now and the frost melted fast but the light was beautiful, and since the heron was nicely set against the frozen lake I settled in for some pictures. What I wanted was a good wide yawn and after a long wait I eventually got a couple.
I was about to move on when I saw a young bald eagle harassing the ducks and then flying in my direction. Suddenly there were two great pairs of wings and level flight turned to chaos. An adult eagle had flown in to defend its territory and I struggled to keep them in frame as they somersaulted through the air. This picture is rather soft because the focus was off, but I love the look of the juvenile flipping onto its back to defend itself.
A good way to end the year.
I didn’t get my pictures of ice or frost, but the next day the new year started with bitterns hunting on the ice, and the next day brought otters and raccoons on the ice.
A good way to start the year.
Ripples at Rest
The end of one year and the start of the next offered a dazzling display of wildlife subjects, but the third day of the new year was quiet and the animals distant. At first disappointed, I soon matched my mood to the day and enjoyed the subtle moments. As I watched coots diving under Rest Lake to feed below, I was struck by the pattern of light dancing across the ripples and turned my lens from birds to water.
I certainly didn’t have pictures like this in mind when I bought the big lens, but it was the right tool to capture this unexpected beauty.