I haven’t been to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge since spring.  I’d almost forgotten what a great place this suburban refuge is for spotting birds.  Perhaps it is the massive amount of flies that are very adept at finding places to bite you during the summer time.

As I walked the trails at the refuge, a large buck with a large set of antlers jumped about fifteen feet beyond me.  I have never seen anything that big so close before (at least not in the Northern Virginia suburbs) and I was stunned.  I almost forgot that I had a camera with me as I struggle to see where it went.  I saw it again, but instead of taking a picture, I just soaked in the experience of seeing something new.  It scampered away quickly.  Darn.

Fortunately, the bluebirds still sang.  The woodpeckers still pecked.  And a few birds that I’ve never spotted before were, surprisingly, within my camera’s view.  I’ve been telling myself that even though a bird looks grey or brown, it may be something unfamiliar.  When you are learning how to spot birds, one of the worst things to do is assume that if a bird looks like something you’ve seen before, you just ignore it.  I am not very good at spotting birds, so imagine my surprise when I looked at the pictures of the small birds and saw a hermit thrush (above) and what I believe is a yellow rumped warbler.

And a white throated sparrow hiding behind leaves.

Of course, why not take pictures of a woodpecker and an Eastern Bluebird?

And fortunately, with the tide low, this ring billed gull was standing in the sand.