Rainy day at Assabet River NWR

    

I havent been to Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge in over a month, which is a really long time for me, since I am in the habit of going there regularly. I picked a rainy afternoon to visit the refuge, with hopes to find a pair of great horned owls I had been told about. I parked, and already saw some activity from my car. An eastern bluebird was perched in the bushes along the trail, accompanied by a few red-breasted nuthatches, who were flying in and out, landing on the forest floor to look for food. This is my first sighting of red-breasted nuthatches, but I see their white breasted relatives often.

I continued down the trail to a beaver pond, which had a few great blue heron nests last year. As expected, a few of the nests were already topped with roosting heron parents. Soon, they will lay eggs, but for now, they are focused on repairing the nests with sticks from around the edges of the pond. The heads of heron chicks should become visible this Summer. This is what the nests look like now...

...And at the bottom of the snags, hiding in between them, was a small flock of ring-necked ducks...

I worked my way around to the opposite side of the pond, because that was where the owls had been spotted. I looked around but didn't see them. They were probably hidden somewhere up in the canopy. I had a better angle on the heron nests, and took photos as one of them took off to go fishing...

I crossed the peninsula, over towards where the heron landed in the tall, wetland grass. Only it's head was visible as it slowly stalked its way through the marsh...

A little further east, the shrubs that made up the marsh gave way to another clear beaver pond. Some more ring-necked ducks...

I started to head back to the car. As I passed the first beaver pond again, I saw a dark shape pass over the trail. Another heron! it glided and landed on top of a nearby snag...

To finish off my day strong, I then started hearing a shrill, repeated scream. The distress call of a wood duck. I looked up and watched as a mated pair flapped quickly through the snags, across the pond, and touched down in a swamp, out of sight...

I decided to sneak over to where the pair had landed. I could still faintly hear them whistling. I looked to my right, where the sound was coming from, and I saw them only about 15 feet away, roosting together on a submerged log. I could only take 1 in-focus shot, before they took off again, with the female screaming.

I only had about 3 seconds to take photos before the female began wailing and screaming as they flew off into the distance. Wood ducks are very skittish, and I'm just glad that for once, I spotted them before they spotted me.