It was still a fairly grey day when I headed out to Reifel to help out on the trails this afternoon. The number of visitors was subdued as well. On starting off I came across one regular winter visitor that was awake and somewhat in the open.
The Black-crowned Night-Heron is a favourite of many visitors this time of the year.
A highlight of the morning walk was a pair of Canvasback on the inner display ponds. Unfortunately they were too far off for any decent pictures. Making up for that, however,
… was this female Hairy Woodpecker along the centre dyke trail. Initially it was higher up in the trees,
… but with a little patience it came to this old snag lower down. This can help with backgrounds when shooting on a grey day like today.
The Hairy Woodpecker is not seen as often as some of the other woodpeckers in the sanctuary.
So it was nice to spend a little time with this cooperative bird and pointing it out to visitors.