Life has been busy this past week. Consequently, pending posts are piling up. Which translates to, they may or may not ever be completed/shared. I am glad I gave myself A LOT of flexibility with my attempt at regular Monday posts. They wouldn't happen otherwise.
This weeks sights did not happen on Sunday...they are from Tuesday. I packed my camera and took advantage of already being on the road for an oil change appointment.
After finding swans, I decided to change my focus to looking for different ducks. No clue why. I never paid attention to the various duck species. I wished to photograph a Wood Duck. I have never seen one in person. They are so colorful!
I had just arrived at my destination and out of the corner of my eye I saw ~ EEKS ~ Wood Ducks!! I pulled over and tried to contain my excitement. I had to shoot through brush as the pair quickly swam away.
4-19-22
male
female
pair
There were other ducks floating around within reach of my camera.
Lesser Scaup
pair
Blue-Winged Teal pair
I will have to try to get a better photo of a Blue-Winged Teal male.
Northern Shoveler
I was happy with what I found and headed back to my truck to leave. Suddenly, a large something came flying out of nowhere. It dramatically dove into the water in the distance. Multiple times. My exact words were "what the hell was THAT?!!" All I knew when I took these photos, was that it was big.
Update: What I saw was an immature Bald Eagle, not a Golden Eagle. Whoops! I thought it was awesome that ebird contacted me to let me know. Apparently Golden Eagles are rare, and this bird was not one.
the amazing show lasted a couple minutes
eagle bathing
The eagles head was completely under water during one of the dives.
the eagle flew away
then circled back for another dunk :)))
it was SO COOL to watch!!
Even with all the excitement of watching the eagle bathe, the highlight for me was seeing these two:
Wood Duck ~ male
5 comments:
Beautiful photos of the ducks, and great action shots of the golden eagle. They are huge! I watched one doing the same thing in the pond at our local preserve, and it was amazing. Your photos brought back memories. I know what it's like to have unpublished posts. I get behind, too, and it's hard to catch up, especially in spring / summer / fall, when the weather is decent and there's so much to do! Hope you keep finding time to share these photos with us though.
I have a hard time waiting and love your description of 'patience of a gnat' which used to be me all of the time! Well, at least for sitting still.
I have been dismayed to just find common geese after such a great start watching for birds. But I will eventually expand my horizons to new territories to explore.
Those eagle shots. Just. Wow. Wowzah!
Looks like you had a picture perfect day to go looking for waterfowl.
Beautiful pictures of the ducks! They are all so different in coloring. That eagle was amazing. Looked like he was having fun taking a bath! We have one circling the farm all the time but I've never gotten a picture of him. Just so beautiful to watch.
Lots of wow shots there! You should do a drawing of that wood duck. Interesting brown tones in the water set off his loud coloring.
I think the eagles can spot shoals of small fish in the water (or larger fish) which would explain the diving and dunking. That old eagle eye! what a great thing to get to watch!
The Eagle was fishing! I have only seen a Golden one time, we have lots of Bald Eagles. I dislike them very much but they are pretty to photograph. Great photos of the Wood ducks!
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