I got out to Ridgefield NWR, my favorite local site for wildlife photography. My treat today was to see the first coyote that I've seen there in over a year. Refuge management introduced endangered Columbian white-tailed deer to the refuge, and killed a large number of the local coyote population in order to get better survival rates for the deer. I normally support the efforts of refuge management, but I couldn't support them on this one. It seemed profoundly stupid to me. In the late 1950s or early 1960s, the area around Klamath Falls was overrun by rodents because the predators were shot and poisoned on a large scale. The crops suffered as a result. Turn over a bale of alfalfa, and dozens of voles went scrambling. We never learn. Ok, rant over.
A few of the images that I have taken over the years at Ridgefield NWR...
A few of the images that I have taken over the years at Ridgefield NWR...