Monday, February 02, 2009

Quiet afternoon, with background quacking

Before I go on to something else, let me show you the last of the Reifel Island photos:


I love the light in this one. An almost-deserted waterway. The ducks are behind us.


Coot, collecting leftovers after the kids went by. Those feet are far too big; they get in each other's way.


"Nobody's using this nest box; I may as well perch on it."


Unidentified hawk on another nest box. Good thing it's not breeding season yet.


Mallard hybrid. I don't think I've seen this particular mix before.


Great blue heron, fishing.


Scaup females. Greater, I think. Or Lesser. One or the other.


Redwing blackbird. The males arrive here first, then the females about a month later. We'll look for them at the end of February.


Bird feeder. With resident squirrel.


Looking out the window of the warming room. A welcome haven in cold weather, heated by a fragrant wood stove.


On the way home, we stopped to see this eagle guarding his nest.

Next: Stone soup.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:56 pm

    Got to your blog from the most recent Tree Festival posting and started to explore. Great photos! You are cataloging so many different species!

    Have you heard of iNaturalist (http://www.inaturalist.org) yet? If you have the time, you'd be a great addition to the community they are starting up over there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, Vicky,

    Welcome to my blog! I hope you visit often.

    Yes, I am a member of iNaturalist. Unfortunately, I have been distracted by other projects, and haven't been active on iN yet. I hope to remedy that soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:47 am

    Cool! I look forward to catching your sightings there as well! Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Re the Mallard Hybrid pic, there are several of that mix at the Estuary at Cramond, near Edinburgh. I've been puzzling over them for ages, wondering if they're an actual variety in their own right, but couldn't find anything in the books. What can they have been hybridised with I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Re the Mallard Hybrid pic, there are several of that mix at the Estuary at Cramond, near Edinburgh. I've been puzzling over them for ages, wondering if they're an actual variety in their own right, but couldn't find anything in the books. What can they have been hybridised with I wonder?

    ReplyDelete

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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