Last week I saw a couple of wood duck pairs. This was lovely as up until then I saw very few Wood ducks. Now that I know they are around, unfortunately we have been experiencing flooding and I have been unable to return to the location where I had sighted them.Hopefully when the flooding is over and the water has gone down I will be able to find them again. Have a nice dry day everyone!
While watching a male common Merganser in the river in front of me I was fortunate to be able to capture this sequence of its take off action.
I think the most beautiful part of his pair of black ducks is the Blue Patch on the side of the female Duck., It is her beauty spot in my opinion.
We don't often see a skunk walking across the road, as its often an unfortunate case of it having been hit by a vehicle in its crossing. When we saw a live skunk yesterday we decided to turn back and try to capture its picture. We didn't have many pose choices as it was hurrying to the other side and when it got to the other side and disappeared in the ditch vegetation, we didn't get out to search for it, because you know it was a skunk! and you know what their reaction reputation is! and although we enjoyed seeing one, we didn't want to encounter one.
Yesterday while out driving I approached a small highway bridge where I often see an Eastern Phoebe and it wasn't on the bridge sidings. To early I told myself but I stopped midway on the bridge and rolled my car window down and much to my delight!
I had thought that I had taken a good picture of a black, but after downloading the pure i wasn't so sure about that. The neck of the duck appeared to be green, was it a maybe Mallard?... No there was black on the duck's head.. Then I thought , maybe some sort of hybrid and after checking in my bird guidebook I found that it was Black duck, Mallard Hybrid.
I have been looking for Black Ducks for days recently. Last spring the first duck species I had found were Black Ducks. Each spring I look for Ducks in two different sort of location. First I find Mergansers and Common Goldeneye in the rivers and ponds and secondly, the nature of spring usually being that of melting ice ands rain showers, I often find ducks in field ponds; water pooled together in fields to create a pond like appearance. But this spring has been so cold that I have found very few field ponds as the temperatures have been so cold. Yesterday I found Black Ducks and Mallards in a few small field ponds. Hopefully the temperatures will warm up soon and I shall find more dabbling ducks.
Tomorrow we are expecting freezing rain and ice pellets so I don't expect many more field ponds to be developing soon.Yesterday morning I was slowly cruising along in my village when I noticed a large bird walking alongside my cat. I rolled
I am linking today to Irene's Satturday Critters which can be found at viewingnature witheileen.blogspot.caWe know that in the bird wold most often the most attractive gender of the species is the male. But this week I found a female common Merganser that looked quite feminine to me and she looked sweet, almost pretty even. She had such a gentle, pleasant appearance I can't get over the surprise of seeing such aa sweet looking female duck,
Its always interesting when finding a surprise when downloading pictures. Yesterday I had been taking pictures of groups of Canada Geese. Upon downloading the pictures when back home I saw a smaller sized bird in the foreground of some Canadas in a picture!
After finding the small bird I decided to crop it out to study it closer and shown below is what I got. I believe it is a Killdeer!
It isn't often that I have an opportunity to view a Turkey Vulture up close, however on Thursday of this week while driving along the highway I saw a large bird land in a driveway. Being very curious as to what it was I shed the traffic behind me and turned and went back to look at the bird. The large bird was still there and with my 300mm zoom lens I could see the red head and face. I knew it was a Turkey Vulture.
I had never had such a close-up view like that before.I am linking today to Eileen's Saturday's Critters 
It isn't often that I see a Beaver swimming in the water, but luckily I did yesterday! I wasn't sure at first of it was a Beaver or a Muskrat, but I was hoping that the photos would show a portion of the tail and they did. The wide paddle shaped tail told me that it was a beaver swimming there in the rive below me as I was standing on the bridge over the river!
Yesterday I was delighted to see a Song Sparrow in Bird Alley!
spring has been a disappointment so far. It is slow in unfolding. Our weather has not been springlike and perhaps that is why I have seen very few ducks. I have found Hooded Mergsnsers only twice. Earlier this week Ifound three males together in one location.
I am linking today with viewingnaturewitheileen.ca
\Have a wonderful weekend everyone and may it warm up soon.
The same time period, the same location, the same species: This is what I love about nature, .loyaltly, dependability faith in it’s return migration. Every year at this time I go to the same location to stand on a highway bridge overlooking a river to find that HoodedMergansers have returned to the river . In 2017 , I saw the first mergansers there in the river on March the 10th. This year, 2018, I saw the first Hooded Merganser on March the 13th! Yes! I was standing on the bridge with my camera and I saw a dark speck in the distance and so I took a picture of the speck with my 75- 300 zoom lens.
I don't like winter, especially the cold temperatures! This winter I have seen very few birds at our bird feeders, plus with the ice and snow on the ground I have had faced difficulties keeping the feeders refilled ( As I have a tendency to fall easily with precarious underfooting). And problems all winter long with a painful shoulder condition has kept me from driving out as much as I usually do, looking for birds,So what to do about birding? I solved my birding interests by turning to quilt making! This winter I have made two bird quilts. The first quilt I have made was using a Birds in the Air pattern. I have just recently had it quilted by a professional who uses a longarm quilting machine.
My critter today is small but mighty in terms of predicting
the approach of spring!! The same window in our kitchen which faces a south-westerly direction is always the window of choice each year for our first ladybug sighting. We just saw the one on our window and my husband removed it carefully by sliding
When my husband shouts to me" Bring your camera and hurry!", I know something interesting is around and when he shouted at me today I was very eager to see what was about!
It was Wild Turkeys! and they were unusual yard bird sightings to me! I had never seen Wild Turkeys before until this autumn past ..and various people had reported having seen five wild turkeys .around the community at various locations. A friend had called me when they had visited her yard and I went to her property with my camera to take pictures of them. That visit had been a life bird sighting for me. Today it was our turn to be visited by these magnificent birds.
Apparently these birds have overwintered around or about our community these past few winter months and today we saw all five turkeys visiting on our property!
Yesterday, January 21 we saw a beautiful Red Robin in Bird Alley. We don't usually see this species at this time of year so it was an optimistic uplifting and a reminder that spring is coming in a couple of months. The bird looked very healthly with a round belly and a beautiful colour. I am hoping it will reurn today to feed on our bountiful American bittersweet berries.
I saw a sign of spring this morning!!!!! It is so cheerful to remember that this cold, wet, icy, snowy winter will have an end. My cheering sighting was a Starling with a yellow bill!! It is so comforting to be able to recognize the various signs of spring!
American Tree Sparrows are Arctic winter migrants who migrant southern to warmer frigid climes during our winter months. They are very welcome little feathered visitors to Bird Alley and I love seeing them outside our windows.
Yesterday I was able to add a bird species to my life list. Wild Turkeys were seen in my community. I had never seen Wild Turkeys before! There were 5 of them all moving along
