A Ducky Day

 

Pied-billed Grebe

 

Green-winged teal

 

Hooded Mergansers

 

Common Mergansers

We've been lucky to have a few more fancy ducks this year. The teal only stayed for a few minutes, but the grebe, and hooded mergansers have been here a while. The common mergansers are less common here, but we've seen them a few days.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands: Huntington Beach, CA: Teals and Grebes

Blue-Winged Teal


Green-winged Teal


Eared grebe


Pied-billed grebe

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

Great Blue Heron

Northern Shoveler

Green-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Black Necked Stilt

Thw San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary managed by the Irvine Ranch Water District has an impressive variety of birds.

Birding at Liberty State Park

Eastern Towhee

Green-winged Teal

Mute Swan 

Gadwalls 

We went birding at Liberty State Park this AM. It was a bit overcast, but we saw a few migratory ducks. We left, went to city for gluten-free pizza at Pala Pizza, and then stopped at Dekorte Park in the Meadowlands when it was sunnier.

Green-Winged Teals: First Migratory Ducks of the Season

 

 

 

This morning Mike saw several ducks flying closely together around the lake. We saw them flying again on our morning walk and we knew they weren't mallards. We thought they were lesser scaups or maybe ring-necked ducks. In the evening, we took the boat out and they flew by again and then landed on the water. With binoculars and camera, we identified them as green-winged teals. They are our first migratory ducks of the year. It seems a bit early, where did summer go?

Green Winged Teals

 

 

Green-winged Teal from San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

 

Chris saw this photo of a Green-winged Teal on the computer and couldn't believe we didn't post it. Well, we took over 2000 pictures in 2 days so we didn't post them all. If you could hear her rave, you would know why we are posting it now- such a handsome duck.

Green-winged Teal

 

Female Green-winged Teal

Here is a photo of the female green-winged teal that spent the day at Lake Nelson hanging out with the merganser.

Green-winged Teals

Green-winged Teal & Canada Goose

Another very exciting morning! We started looking early hoping to see the Wood Ducks again. One was here yesterday but barely for a minute. At first Chris didn't see anything other than geese, but did a quick scan over the lake with the binoculars in case. Well, good thing! Of course the "new duck" alert went into effect. There were two male Green-winged Teals hanging around for about a half hour. Isn't he just adorably small in comparison to the goose! It was sort of a gray morning, and we didn't find these little guys to be very photogenic, but this we thought was good enough to post.