Heavy rain followed me on Sunday all the way from Salt Lake City, where I spent the night, to Wendover, Nevada, where it tapered off. Still heavily overcast with intermittent showers, the Nevada skies almost stopped me from returning to Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nevada, a place that I loved when I first visited it last July.

This refuge is a large oasis in the desert. It is marshland that attracts countless migratory birds. It certainly attracts me.

I did abandon my plans to camp at the South Ruby Campground. Even during the day the weather was uncomfortably cold. And I really dislike pitching a tent in the rain. Like during my previous visit to Ruby Lake, I stayed in Elko.

I made a 200-mile detour to visit Ruby Lake. It is one of the most isolated wildlife refuges in the United States. That’s probably one of the reasons why I love it so much.

Since my SUV makes an excellent blind, I was able to take most of my shots without getting wet. Here are a few of the myriad forms of wildlife that make Ruby Lake their temporary or permanent home.

A Better Name for the Ruddy Duck, I Think, Would be Blue-Beak

Click on the picture above to enlarge

The Double-Crested Cormorant Lacks its Crest at This Time of Year

Click on the picture above to enlarge

The White-Faced Ibis is Another Bird with a Name I Find Hard to Accept

Click on the picture above to enlarge

A White-Faced Ibis Flies

Click on the picture above to enlarge

The birds that I missed most on this trip were the five goslings and their parents that I watched almost daily from the time mama Canada Goose laid her eggs right in front of my apartment, as I wrote back in April. Seeing the family below helped allay that homesickness.

Mama Canada Goose and Her Four Goslings

Click on the picture above to enlarge

Finally, for those of you who are more interested in wildlife that can’t fly, here is an animal.

A Muskrat Swims in a Ruby Lake Canal

Click on the picture above to enlarge

Like some of the birds, if I had my druthers, I would have named the muskrat something else.