I am nearly caught up with my backlog of photo editing, so I am finally able to post current images rather than photos from earlier in the year. I went looking for foxes this morning, but didn’t see a single one. This Ring-billed gull was a nice consolation prize, though. Twice I saw him swoop over the water, make a plunging dive from four or five feet up, and emerge with a crayfish in his bill. He was less adept at actually eating the crayfish, and repeatedly dropped it in the water and then plucked it out again. The action was great, though it was difficult to make an image that adequately conveyed the micro-drama of the fight between bird and meal.

This is one of a flock of Northern Flickers that I found feeding in a patch of snow-covered cattails. Unusual behavior (I have not seen Flickers feeding in a flock before, nor feeding in mashland), though less dramatic than the gull. I like the sense of habitat from this image, though I wish that it were a tad less cluttered.