Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge lies to the west of my hometown, Hoquiam, Wash., just outside the city limits. It covers about 1,500 acres of mudflats, salt marsh, and uplands, and it is a major stopover for migrating shorebirds, especially in the spring, when they are on their way from as far south as Argentina to the Arctic.
There's a boardwalk about a mile and half long that runs through woods along the edge of the mudflats. It's a good place to watch the shorebirds as they feed in the mudflats, though you need a powerful zoom lens or binoculars to really see them. They're tiny birds, and the mudflats cover a wide area.
This photo was taken on the western tip of the boardwalk. We're looking west across the mudflats, partially covered by tidal waters that morning, into the Grays Harbor bay. It was early October in 2018, on my first trip to the NWR with my then-new camera, a Canon ELPH 180. I had just decided to take up photography, so that I would have cover photos for my stories on Steem.
So this is one of my first photographs, taken at the beginning of my new hobby. And, I feel like it might still be one of my best!