Last weekend was cold and very grey but seeing this American Widgeon hanging out on a rock in Clear Creek brought a little color to the day. Even though I gave these guys a little grief for swiping food from the redheads the other day they sure are something to look at.
If you can’t dive to the bottom of the pond to get a tasty mouthful of greens what’s a dabbling duck like this American Widgeon to do? Simple, steal it form those darn diving ducks like this Redhead. We have watched this behavior many times. The Widgeon follows the diving ducks around on the pond and when they come up they try to steal the divers catch. This time a determined Redhead got away with his mouthful of greens and we all need to eat our greens.
Continuing with what appears to have turned into duck week here on the blog I present the Buffleheads. They make a fine couple don’t they.
They usually seem to keep to the middle of the lakes around here in winter but when it gets cold and the lakes freeze over they move the the nearby creeks where we get a closer look at these amazing little ducks.
From allaboutbird..https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bufflehead/id
“Buffleheads are a buoyant, large-headed duck that abruptly vanishes and resurfaces as it feeds, the tiny Bufflehead spends winters bobbing in bays, estuaries, reservoirs, and lakes. Males are striking black-and white from a distance. A closer look at the head shows glossy green and purple setting off the striking white patch. Females are a subdued gray-brown with a neat white patch on the cheek. Bufflehead nest in old woodpecker holes, particularly those made by Northern Flickers, in the forests of northern North America.”
The male Hooded Mergansers were out in force last Sunday afternoon cursing the pond and showing off to whoever was in the area and in this case the most interested observer was a male Redhead duck, not a female Merganser.
Each winter we await the arrival of the waterfowl which overwinter on the creeks in our vicinity. One of the duck species I always love to see on the creek is the diminutive Green Winged Teal which are the smallest dabbling ducks in North America. This male caught our eye the other day allowed us a few quick photographs before making his way downstream.
Sitting quietly.
Waiting for the sun.
A Doves warm color.
A tiny Yellow Rumped Warbler found the bull kelp a perfect perch for hunting sand flies and other small insects on the beach. This girl would quickly dart down form the kelp to snag a small meal and quickly return to her perch. Seeing her sitting on the head of the bull kelp made us realize just how small she was. We watched a documentary about songbirds the other night called The Messenger. Here is a link to the website http://songbirdsos.com
It is a very timely reminder about what a world without song birds would be like.
The one and only Mandarin Duck is back and is hanging with the geese on a snowy January day. This guy sure adds quite the splash of color to an otherwise grey and snowy day.
Clear Creek in Denver, CO.
We watched these two Crows examining this piece of debris washed up on the shore for quite some time. They would each give it peck and then look at each other with facial expressions that seemed imply a question. They kept at it for quite some time before determining it might have been food upon which the bigger of the two seemed to claim the prize.
A swan and her cygnets swim past aware of our presence yet relaxed on a semi-frozen pond in Grand Teton National Park. Such small eyes for such large birds.
nature has no boss 
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