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.
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.
Out on a cross country ski near biscuit basin in Yellowstone NP. What is not to love, bison, geysers and sunlight just peeking out from behind the clouds.
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.
These guys always seem so alert and on patrol. Furthermore, they look pretty darn tough. That said, they are one of the more skittish ducks on the ponds and getting close is always a challenge.
nature has no boss 
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