Ducks
It rained all day yesterday, sometimes quite hard. When we woke up this morning there was a light dusting of snow on parts of the lawn. When I got to work, the small pond between my building and the next was much enlarged by the rain.
Tagged With: Ducks
Duck Pond
Duck Pond
To me this photograph has something of a painterly quality — it sort of looks like a watercolor. Something about the reflections, maybe. What do you think?
Ducks
Ducks
Across Key West is a pond that was put in about ten years ago. It’s a great spot to find ducks, geese and other birds. These three took off as I approached.
Common Merganser and Ducklings (Mergus merganser)
Common Merganser and Ducklings (Mergus merganser)
Cathy and I went to the glacier this afternoon. By ‘the glacier’ I mean the Mendenhall. We had been in the valley at a cemetery looking for the grave of one of Cathy’s mom’s siblings (we found it) and since we were close, we decided to head to the glacier and see what we could see. It was mostly cloudy, but not raining and still quite pretty. There are arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) nesting on the shore of Mendenhall Lake and I was able to get a few decent photos of them. But my favorite is this one of a common merganser (Mergus merganser) with ducklings on its back and following it along. There were ten ducklings in all, although you can only see nine in this photo.
Categories: Creatures
Tags: Alaska, Birds, Common Merganser, Ducklings, Ducks, Juneau, Merganser, Mergus, Mergus merganser
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Margansers and Scaup
Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus)
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)
We decided to go to the canal today but on the way we were passing the national headquarters of the Izaak Walton League on Muddy Branch Road and decided to stop and walk around Lake Halcyon on that property. It’s a nice little pond with woods on three sides and it’s not uncommon to see ducks there. We were blessed with three duck species. First we saw a pair of hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus), which are fish-eating ducks. They were out in the middle of the pond but with my long lens I was able to get a decent shot of them. Then we saw a pair of lesser scaup (Aythya affinis), a type of diving duck. We also saw two pairs of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). There were eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in the trees around the pond, as well.
We see mergansers reasonably often but this is the first time I’ve seen scaup, so I considered that to be a real treat.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Aythya, Aythya affinis, Ducks, Hooded Merganser, Isaac Walton League, Lake Halcyon, Lesser Scaup, Lophodytes, Lophodytes cucullatus, Merganser, Scaup
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Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus)
Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus)
We took a walk to Sandy Spring today after visiting Cathy’s mom. There wasn’t a lot to photograph but we did see this pair of hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) on a pond near Sandy Spring Friends School on a path off from the main trail. They’re pretty birds and fairly easily recognized. We’ve seen quite a few of them this winter, possible more than in past years, but that may be because we’re paying more attention, especially now that I have my long telephoto lens and can get much better photos of them.
Categories: Creatures
Tags: Birds, Ducks, Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes, Lophodytes cucullatus, Merganser, Water Birds
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