The tide was high, and the tidal lagoon at Oyster Bay was full of birds. Near the shore where I stood, a flock of pintails and wigeons, the pintails up-ending themselves in search of underwater goodies. On the far side of the purple martin nest poles, empty now in the winter, mallards. Against the light, I could see them as blotches, with specks of green; their showy heads. On the sand of the leg now enclosing the lagoon, barely visible as running specks, peeps, probably sandpipers. Beyond that, more mallards and a white dusting of gulls. And then, over the snowy shore, a flight of ducks, speeding Vs against the clouds.
All that I saw, but the camera saw the warm brown heads and the feather patterns of nearby pintails, which my eyes couldn't quite make out.
Pintail females. Plain heads, intricately patterned bodies. |
A couple of males. Anas acuta; the name, acuta, as well as the English name, pintail, refers to the long, pointed tail of the breeding males. |
The nearest corner of the lagoon. Mostly pintails in this group. |
And I counted 9 eagles on the way home. I probably missed some; I do have to keep an eye on the road.
- Dos hembras.
- Dos machos. El nombre científico, A. acuta, se refiere a la cola larga, puntiaguda de los machos en la temporada de apareamiento.
- La esquina más cercana de la laguna. Principalmente eran ánades rabudos en este grupo.
No comments:
Post a Comment
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!