Lacreek Nat'l Wildlife Refuge

During our road trip Sat., Jayne was kind enough to drive us through the refuge just 12 miles from her hometown. It was a dark grey day, as you can tell...we saw so many birds, it was awesome! We saw a few Western grebes on the water.

We sighted just this one orchard oriole.

I took many pheasant photos, but those buggars are hard to capture. I took most,like this one, just outside of the refuge, where pheasant hunting is popular.

This American bittern, below, almost had me fooled, on the opposite shore of the waterway. It didn't budge.

We saw a few blue-winged teals on the water, too.

We saw a lot of pelicans, also proving difficult to capture.

This is my favorite shot; I just love shore birds! This is a willit, of the sandpiper species.

We saw several male yellow-headed blackbirds, first time I'd ever seen one; very distinct markings. They favor the dried cattails just like the red-winged blackbirds.

Even the female yellow-headed blackbird has a nice amount of bright yellow on her.

We saw mourning doves on the telephone wires, about the only bird that wasn't quick to fly away.