Between the land and the sea what a place to be. Swallows flying free over Lake John near Walden, CO last summer.
Tag: Birds
Canvasback
The other day we spotted a few Canvasbacks in the local pond. This guy just awoke from a nap on the edge of the ice. We don’t see many Canvasbacks around our area in the winter so watching a few napping and others diving into the pond for a meal was quite a treat.
American Dipper
The Dipper is a winter visitor in our parts and this year has presented a challenge to photograph. He seems to enjoy the darkest part of the creek and blends in quite well with the small boulders in the stream making spotting him difficult. We waited for eternity for him to hop up on the small sunlight boulder in the photo but no luck.
We were happy to watch him foraging in these small rapids and get a glimpse or two of him above the water as he spent about 95% of his time head down collecting dinner. Hope this guy finds plenty of food and hangs around so we can get another opportunity to watch him.
Amazing bird for sure.
Patience
A lone Bufflehead and several flocks of Geese waiting for the fog to lift and sun to rise on a short December day.
Keeping warm was the main activity on the frigid morning -7F (-21C) along the South Platte river where I am sure the water was warmer than the air.
The Gadwalls
They make a nice couple don’t you think? It feels like just a day or two ago the ducks left town signaling the arrival of spring. Now the ducks are returning to the local ponds suggesting winter will soon show it’s face. A great time to to get out and have some fun.
Yellowlegs
A Lesser Yellowlegs foraging in a temporary pond alongside a county road in Eastern Colorado last spring. I sure wish we would get some snow soon as without it winter feels like a strange spring that lacks the birds and has short days.
Goldfinch and Thistle
An American Goldfinch was working over these thistle plant pretty good for an afternoon meal at the Bosque Del Apache national Wildlife refuge. From the looks of it this chubby guy is well versed at extracting thistle seeds.
Sunset Splash
Goldeneyes and Buffleheads enjoying a dip in the late afternoon light.
Hybrid Mallards?
There are four photos in the full post.
A few weeks ago we noticed these three ducks all hanging out together that looked a bit like mallards but they were darker in spots and the coloration was just not typical of a mallard. In addition,one guy had some strange poofy feathers on his head. They were also much larger, almost goose size, compared to the typical mallard.
At first I thought they might be melanistic mallards, expressing excess feather pigmentation. However after reading more on melanistic animals I think they are probably some type of mallard hybrids. When we first saw these guys they seemed out of their element in the local pond. All three hung out very close together the whole time we observed them even dabbling in unison for food. Perhaps another case of pet ducks released into the wild just like our encounters with the Pekin and Mandarin ducks in the past.
If anyone can shed some light as to the exact origins of these hybrids it is welcome. Until then they remain a bit of a mystery to me.
Contemplative
Considering todays to do list or maybe not?
nature has no boss 
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