Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

 My "live-in gardener" and I had decided about a month ago that we needed to

get out of our house for an adventure each week.

Last Saturday we took an adventure to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

I knew it was there, only about a 30 minute drive north into Washington State;

but somehow in all the 40+ years living nearby we had not visited.

Now I am almost embarrassed to say so, but it certainly won't be 40 years

until we visit there again. In fact, we are already planning to take our grandson

and daughter as soon as it is safe with the pandemic to ride in the car together.

Red wing black bird's greeted us when we arrived.

We were told we must stay in our car and drive slowly with stops along the way.

In fact, we could tell when there was something special to see because

there would be several cars ahead of us stopping and looking.

Canada goose, I am sure there must have been at least a thousand of them.

Muskrat, well I liked seeing 4 or 5 of them, but I am guessing they

are in the rodent family; so they were not my favorite.

American Coot, plenty of these cute birds too.

Great Blue Heron with several sightings along the way.

Deer, on one of the stops. There were about 6 of them out in a meadow.

Canada geese, yes, more geese!!

Tundra Swans, I had never seen so many swans in my life.

This was only a few of them.

All those white birds in the background were swans too.

Great Egret, just strolling along.

Bald Eagle in flight, there were two of them, but couldn't see them closely.

Water fowl, coots   Ducks in a row!

Great Blue Heron, he was quite close.

After Reading Lucretius, I Go to the Pond

The slippery green frog

that went to his death

in the heron's pink throat

was my small brother,

and the heron

with the white plumes

like a crown on his head

who is washing now his great sword-beak

in the shining pond

is my tall thin brother.

My heart dresses in black 

and dances.

~Mary Oliver, Blue Horses Poems

It truly felt like a vacation for a couple hours

and we loved every moment of the adventure.

Have you taken an adventure during this pandemic time?

Not always easy to do, but soooooo worth it. 

This weekend we will be stuck at home,

but the sight outside our window is snowy white and all quite beautiful.

Happy weekend, dear friends!