ducks and other birds

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.



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.



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



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).



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!