Friday, March 29, 2013

Spring Waterfowl

Just a couple quick shots I took recently.  Enjoy!

Quack!
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Quack Quack!
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Honk!
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The goose may look calm, but she and her mate (just out of the picture) were NOT happy about me being there.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Spring is Coming

I got out yesterday to play with my camera, and see what the birds may be up to.  My local birding website listed some waterfowl sighted down at the river, so I decided to check it out.  There is a spot where some water is released into the river, resulting in a small bit of open water all year.  I thought that may be a good spot to find a stray duck.

Well, I can safely say that spring is on the way, because the area was covered with hundreds of geese, ducks, mergansers, and other waterfowl.  I even saw a red-winged blackbird.  It seems rather early for those guys, at least to me it does.  But nothing says spring like the call of a red-winged blackbird singing to his mate.  Of course, I think his mate is still somewhere in southern Ohio at this point.

Here are a few shots I collected.  I hope they are ok, I used this opportunity to test out a new program I am trying, and I have not learned much about it yet.

“Hey, this is MY ice!”  Geese can be mean suckers, can’t they.

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As you can see, there is still snow and ice around, but that does not seem to bother these guys.

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Hooded mergansers.

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These ducks are chillin’!  (Ok, ok, that was bad.  Sorry).

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I love the iridescent green heads of the mallards.  I think the lone female is getting a lot of attention from the guys.

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Common mergansers

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This shot reminds me of that bit from the children’ show…”One of these things is not like the others”

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Here is proof that even waterfowl can have a bad hair day.  (Another common merganser)

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It was a great morning to get out and see that spring is in fact on the way.  The waterfowl are definitely migrating.  I hope I can keep catching them and sharing them with all of you.