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The Christmas get together of our extended family in the Portland-Vancouver area was scheduled for 12-23-18 due to the availability of a room large enough to hold all of us. The following day, Christmas Eve, my family and I drove out the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge River S unit for a final tour of the year. I knew we would be shooting primarily from the pickup, so I left my 500L telephoto lens at home and attached my 1.4x II teleconverter to the 1Dx + 100-400L II telephoto zoom for a reach of 560mm.
A scrub jay was raiding the seed feeder hanging near the volunteer shack.
My son is getting very good at taking photos, so he rode shotgun and took photos from his side of the pickup while I took photos from the driver's side. He took these photos of a great egret that was hunting in a ditch adjacent to the road.
A red-tailed hawk was perched in a tree on my side of the road.
We stopped at the blind, located about 1/3 of the way around the driving loop. On the walkway out to the blind:
Brown creeper.
Golden-crowned kinglet playing its usual game of hide-and-go-seek among the foliage.
From the blind: No snow geese on this visit, but lots of swans.
We got back into the pickup and passed under a red-tailed hawk as we drove down the road. I took this photo through the open sun roof. When I bought the pickup, I took great pains to get a retractable sun roof for shots like this.
The first of two highlights of the trip: three (or maybe four) otters were in the waterway beside the road. It is the first time I have seen otters at Ridgefield. My son took these photos from his seat.
Two northern pintails were in the water on passenger side of the pickup. I shot this photo of one of them while I was looking through the passenger side window as I was afraid my son would not know what I wanted.
The second highlight of the trip was a pair of kestrels. I was on the lookout for them as I figured out their territory from previous visits. My son and I passed the camera back and forth, taking photos from different sides of the pickup.
First kestrel.
Second kestrel. Hunting.
Look closely and you can see the wing of an insect in the kestrel's beak.
Kestrel banking for a turn while cruising over its hunting field.
Now that I know the kestrels' territory, I'll return with the big lens and tripod after May 1st when you are allowed to get out of your vehicle. There are some turnouts where I can park and set up without blocking traffic.
I bought a one year pass for visits during family trips to Vancouver. The driving loop of the River S unit makes quick tours very easy while driving I-5.
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