Turnbull Wildlife Refuge near Cheney, WA

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Wow, the winds changed direction and this morning we had an air quality index of moderate.  We could see blue sky and the sun was shining well enough to make good shadows.
The forecast was that later in the afternoon the winds were to change direction again and we would be covered in smoke.

We decided to head to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge for some hiking while we could.

This map shows the many little lakes/ponds in the refuge.  There is a driving route that has several spots to stop and take a hike.

Our first hike was the 1.25 mile Pine Lakes Loop Trail.  They even had binoculars for us to look through.  This was a handicap accessible trail, so was paved.

This is some kind of sparrow.  We think it might have puffed itself up, but we're not sure.  It looks fat. ☺

We could see this brown ball from a ways off and weren't sure what it was.  As we got closer, Tic zoomed in and we could tell it was a porcupine.

He did not seem to be the least little bit bothered as we walked by.  He did look up at us.

This was another hiking spot.  It was sooooooo dry here.  Many of the ponds were dry or slightly muddy.  Needless to say, the wild life was scarce also.

On another little lake, we saw these 2 trumpeter (no relation to the person running for president) swans.  They are so graceful to watch.

This was another of the larger ponds.  We watched for a short time.

This was one of the ducks in the pond.  We figure it was standing on a fallen log taking a nap.  Other than a few ducks, we did not see any other wild life.

The trees are thick, but the grass is so dry it is brown.

At the Blackhorse Lake Boardwalk, the lake was mostly dry.  We did see this bird on the top of a dead tree. This is 1 of 3 pictures of the beauty.

We search in our little paperback bird book and decided this was maybe a flycatcher.  However, we could easily be wrong.  We enjoyed getting out and decided to head home before the smoke got bad.