Friday, May 02, 2008

Green-winged Teal


By its small size alone, this smallest of dabbling ducks, stands out amongst other ducks. Above is a male Green-winged Teal standing between two Black Ducks. An American Black Duck averages 23" in length while a Green-winged Teal measures 14".
Also very distinctive of this species is the male's rufous coloured head with its green crescent shaped, colour swatch which reminds me somewhat of the green crescent pattern on the head of a adult breeding, male, American Wigeon.
During recent days we have been experienc -ing flooding in our area and this flooded field has been a location where I find a pair of Green-winged Teal each day. In this photo above the natural river bed is beyond the tree line in the

background.

7 comments:

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Beautiful! You certainly have no shortage of birds, and such a wide variety. Wonderful pictures and it looks like a beautiful location, too.

me ann my camera said...

Thank you Sandpiper, and yes, it is a beautiful location. Although the flooding problems lately have created a bit of a problem for us too, as well as for wildlife and birds, and we had to get towed from a flooded road yesterday. So no more drives for me until our car is operational again.

Mary said...

Oh, no! Glad you got towed safely and hope you are on the road again soon. We had severe flooding in the Midwest in early spring, but I believe the Wabash and Ohio are back in their banks now and all is normal. You see so many different ducks, maybe you need to give us a sidebar picture of each one. This one really is small compared to those others! The head is very striking in color. Good pics!

Stacey Olson said...

Teal are such beautiful little birds. thanks for sharing. (glad YOU are safe, cars are replacable..people aren't)

Unknown said...

Beautiful! I love ducks- it is nice to see the Green Winged Teal- I've never seen one in the wild. The flooding looks interesting- I imagine dabbling ducks like the flooding! :)

Anonymous said...

Lovely duck photographs! I've seen the news coverage of all the flooding in New Brunswick and wondered if you were in those low areas.

me ann my camera said...

mary:
Some of the ducks I post are in migration and are only seen for the short while they have stopped over for feeding. We are a maritime province, bordered by the ocean to the south and east, and on the north by a large gulf; and there is a lot of migration activity during the spring. There are also sea ducks to be seen but I haven't been in those locations too often this spring.

stacey:
There has been major flooding in the province, but it was expected and all has been handled very well, and we are not in those major areas. The only problem we had encountered was two blocked roads when returning home on Thursday. But all is well.

daniel:
Dabbling ducks do seem to like the extended feeding areas created by flooding and I see several in fields that weren't water covered before.

april and island:
There has been lots of Canadian news coverage of the flooding occuring here presently but we are not in those flooding areas. However, we have often gone looking for ducks during the spring along the Saint John where much of the flooding is presently occuring. Thank you both for your thoughts.

Glad you both enjoyed the Green-winged Teal pictues; it is a nice little duck and I am also very pleased when I find one.