Some Rare Birds

(Most photos taken with my new upgraded 300mm lens. I can tell that the pictures are clearer. YAY)

Left to right bottom row: Barn Swallow mama, Barn Swallow mama and babies, muskrat, red-winged blackbird

Middle Photo: A fledgling Pileated Woodpecker.

Left to right top row: Savannah sparrow, tiny frog, painted turtles, friends Debbi and Sue

Picture below friends: Caused a lot of speculation, but I believe they are baby Coots.
Below that: one of my favorites, Cedar Waxwing.

Had the BEST day with Debbi and her family, who were so gracious to share her with us. Thank you, thank you for a marvelous day. AND, Debbi did bring some good luck with her as we got to see a Pileated Woodpecker. Two flew in to the area where we had stopped to walk, one huge, one smaller. The huge one flew off and the other one stayed for a while on a tree while the humans tried to get a picture of this "rare event". Also in this area is a building to go into to look out over the marshy area. A "bird blind" sort of thing. Inside a mama Barn Swallow had built a nest and four little birds were in there. So, that was pretty lucky. There were a lot of Cedar Waxwings in the trees, but the lighting wasn't very good and they were pretty far away, so I'm lucky I got as good of a shot as I did of this one. We saw this adorable Savannah Sparrow singing his heart out on top of this post. We saw the tiniest little frogs all over everywhere. The painted turtles were sunning themselves. And this baby bird with it's siblings had us totally confused as to what it was. My bird book helped me to decide they are probably young Coots. They have the biggest feet! And this was the first time I've seen a muskrat there, so that was interesting. We were hot and tired and hungry by the time we left Ridgefield Refuge and we had a nice lunch in Ridgefield in this pub kind of a place. We weren't too picky by then...food! Just give us FOOD! (Rather like those hungry birds, I think..)

Then Debbi's parents, who are so nice and interesting, showed us what Geocaching is all about. We found the "prize" hidden in a tree, and they were happy they had fulfilled their daily Geocaching goal, and I was happy to see what that was about. I guess this is quite the hobby for a lot of people.

Then, we had a lot of hugging and said goodbye for now. Debbi and I share photography as a hobby and also we have both been treated for Acoustic Neuroma.
Acoustic neuromas are rare. The incidence is 10 per million population per year or about 2,800 new cases in the US each year. So, Debbi and I are a couple of rare birds, also. But what the stories and statistics don't tell you is that when two or more people gather who have an AN, miracles can happen and rare birds appear as if by magic.



PS And no, I'm not visually impaired...that's just my glasses that have turned into sunglasses. Why I bothered to slather eye makeup on is a mystery...but it's a woman thing, I guess.