June 7, 2011 – Tue. – Ridgefield NWR – Part One

I arrived at the refuge at about 6:30 a.m.  The skies were pretty cloudy and it had been drizzling on the drive up. But as time went on, the drizzle stopped and the skies started breaking up some yielding some nice, fairly bright, filtered sunlight. I really didn’t see much blue in the sky but there were few other vehicles today at the refuge and I spotted NO mosquitoes all day! I was prepared to dawn my new bug shirt, but luckily, no bugs (at least, not the kind that bite!).

This is going to be a very short entry on The Blog today because I wanted to post some shots of only one bird–one I have never seen before in person but have attempted to hunt down for years. It’s the Lazuli Bunting and is a very close relation to the Indigo Bunting, which is mainly found in the eastern half of the United States.

I noticed on the white board at the refuge ‘office’ that someone spotted the Lazuli Bunting around post 14, so that is where I spent many of my 7 1/2 hours today. I didn’t see a female but I got a bunch of shots of the male.  These were my favorites.

[Please click on the thumbnails for a larger, more detailed view of the images].

Below, he’s just about to scratch!

Below, the bird is on a white sign, which makes it look as if I cut his feet off in the image.

That’s what I have for now!  I just had to get this awesome bird posted, as it was a welcome addition to my life list!  I’ll post the rest of my shots for the day in Part Two, in the not too distant future.  A great day at the refuge for sure!