I spent considerable time birding Fir Island in January, and most of my focus was on trying to photograph Short-eared owls and Northern harriers at the Rawlins Road Fish and Game Preserve.

When I’m in the area I usually stop at the Snow Goose concession to see what can be coaxed from the brush along their parking area.  On this particular day I obtained photos of Song sparrows (which are quite common along the edge of the parking lot)…

Song Sparrow

and a very cooperative Bewick’s wren, which can be challenging to find and even more challenging to photograph.

Bewick’s Wren

Once at the access area I discovered that it was at a period of low tide.  The resident Great Blue heron there was by this time getting quite used to people and I was able to observe and photograph the bird while it was finding food in the drainage ditch.  It seemed to be mainly searching in the tangled grass along the side of the ditch, and I could see it obtaining light-colored objects from the grass from time to time.  I assumed that it was getting small crustaceans, but in magnifying some of my photos in the camera viewer I could see that the heron was actually retrieving very small fish that had apparently been left in tangled vegetation as the tide receded.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Despite several forays to the area over a several week period I never did obtain a Short-eared owl photo of the quality I wanted.

Short-Eared Owl