Monday, December 13, 2010

ducks and other birds

a seriously low cloud kind of day

I mentioned before that the estuary and river are full of birds this time of year, and as you can probably see from the photo above, i wasn't kidding. i brought my telephoto lens with me yesterday in the hopes of capturing some of the different birds. the geese don't seem to be settling too much, only seen flying overhead and honking as they pass by. there is always an eagle or two to be seen, along with a great blue heron, and the ever present gulls. but the ducks in particular are very busy in both the slow moving waters of the estuary and bay and the swift high water in the river.

green winged teal

there were a few of these green winged teals moving in and out of the reeds, occasionally puffing up their chests as they pushed themselves higher out of the water in display.

mallard pair

the mallards were predominant, both in the estuary and in the river as seen here.

glaucous winged gull

always glaucous winged gulls to be seen. i liked this guy, who seems to still be holding on a little to some of his juvenile plumage before his head becomes pure white. i liked the horizontal grasses as well, flattened from the river's movement when the water was higher (the bottom part here is also heavily affected by the tide from the bay).

wigeon pair

many of the ducks were busy nibbling away with their heads tucked underwater, and i only managed to capture these widgeons in a quick instant where they pulled their heads up. there were also several mergansers, scoters and others that dove repeatedly, making tricky targets to catch in the low light. the cloud hung low in the sky (as seen in the top photo) like a heavy blanket. incidentally, i checked the web cam at the ski hill and saw sunshine(!) so it seems if you could get above the clouds it was an okay day. but i also heard they had rain earlier in the day, so i was just as happy i didn't go up and fork out money to play in the snow. the freezing level is due to drop today though, so here's hoping fresh snow will fall.

hope you had a good weekend, inside or out! i hope all the bird talk didn't bore you - there will be more craftiness to share soon!

3 comments:

Eliza said...

i love the colors of the green winged teal! perfect for a colorwork hat, methinks!

Alison Hartford said...

Hey, remember me from the olden days! I found your blog through a mutual olden-days friend (are we not supposed to use our names on the internet?). You make such amazing things!! And your photos are beautiful - these ones remind me of Robert Bateman paintings. I love the little stars in your last post. My husband in Danish and his grandmother taught me to make those a couple of years ago.
Anyway, nice to see your creativity is undiminished!
Alison Hartford

Tara said...

Beautiful pictures. I'm jealous of the different types of ducks you are able to see in one area.