Beneath the Wing - II

 

A young male Muscovy duck folded into himself, emerald and violet feathers layered like scales of polished stone. Only one eye remained visible — rimmed in coral, watchful even in stillness.

Generally, life is good.

Beneath the Wing - I

 

This Muscovy duck is a fully mature drake.

 

His caruncles are still developing and are currently limited to a small "mask" around the eye. As he matures, those red fleshy bits will likely expand across his face.

Generally, life is good.

On the Great Salt Lake

Northern Shovelers on the Great Salt Lake, like many other waterfowl, typically take off in a coordinated sequence.  At first, a few ducks often take off, prompting others to follow them.

Generally, life is good.

Male Mallard in Flight

With a flash of emerald green and gleaming white,

The male mallard slices through the air, 

His wings beating with a steady rhythm. 

Generally, life is good.

On the Wings. Weather and Mood

It's a dark overcast morning and there is not enough light to photograph birds in flight.

As luck would have it, one flock of ducks after another takes off.  My shutter speed is slow but I shoot anyway and get blurry ducks.  To my surprise, I like what is happening. 

My first experience with motion blur was completely unexpected and taught me a very important lesson: when there is not enough light, you don't have to despair.

I am always delighted when a male Mallard in flight covers itself with its wings like a cloak.

This Wood duck is sharp, but luckily the tips of its wings are blurred.

Mallards are always beautiful in flight.

Generally, life is good.

Female Wood Ducks on the Beus Pond

I usually photograph male Wood ducks on our local pond because they are not as shy as females but that morning I managed to get a few pictures of a graceful female Wood duck.

What a beauty!

Generally, life is good.

Female Common Goldeneye

Females Common Goldeneye are very attractive, they have a warm brown head that contrasts nicely with gray body. 

Without a doubt, I wanted to show the beauty of this bird but despite this, I was probably more fascinated by the colorful reflections in the water. They created some kind of surreal beautiful background.

Generally, life is good.

Male Mallard

Male Mallards are gorgeous birds.  They have such lovely colors that sometimes it's so hard not to take photos of them.  

During spring and summer breeding season their colorful plumage helps them to attract females. 

Generally, life is good.

Drake Northern Pintail at Bear River MBR

This is my first drake Northern Pintail that I photographed two weeks ago at the Bear River MBR.  I have never had this opportunity before; usually pintails were so far away that the only thing I could do was watch them.

This handsome drake was not alone, he had a companion, a beautiful female Northern Pintail that remained rather shy and often hid in the vegetation.

Watching this bird was a real pleasure.  He was so lively and made me often smile.

 

It was very cold that early morning and the river was icy and slippery.  There was a time when the bird struggled to maintain its balance on the ice.

Generally, life is good.

In November on the Great Salt Lake

 

Seeing a variety of ducks in November on the Great Salt Lake was very exciting  and at the same time challenging adventure.   

I wasn't wrong when I said "challenging", because I don't see ducks often, I know so little about them and having observed these wonderful birds, I knew that identifying them would be quite difficult.

 

In the photo above, an American Wigeon swims past with great dignity.  

I love when birds interact with each other because they are somewhat reminiscent of us, humans. 

Gadwall stopped swimming for a while because watching the avocet march past him was a funny show that couldn't be missed.

A magnificent trio. 

Two avocets and Wigeon seem to be oblivious to each other, but this is very deceptive. 

Generally, life is good. 

American Wigeon at the Great Salt Lake

In a small backwater of the Great Salt Lake, I accidentally spotted a small group of ducks. To my indescribable joy, among them were several American Wigeons 

The American Wigeon is also known as "baldpate" because the white stripe resembles a bald man's head.  Breeding males also have a green eye patch that turned out dark in my photographs - the backwater was in shadow, and the rock reflecting the light made the scenes darker.

Doesn't the male Wigeon look like a leader of this group? 

In the group: a male Northern Shoveler, he is the first duck on the left and a female swimming next to him.

At some point, the male Northern Shoveler left the group, but the females continued to stay close to their leader.  Soon the non-breeding Eared Grebe joined the group and began to watch it from the distance.

Generally, life is good. 

Notes to Self. Life

 

What happens, happens, and nothing can be done about it. 

I limp due to a muscle injury in my left leg. And it seems that I don’t have much choice now.   Of course, I can give up on this "now" and wait until tomorrow or after tomorrow, but tomorrow will be another "now", so there is no point in waiting.

Today I went to our local park and, based on the situation I am in now, I decided to make this outing turn out to be cool.

As luck would have it, the pond turned out to be quite boring, dirty and unfriendly, but at some point it became generous and I met a squirrel, and a little later a beautiful female Mallard.

***

Случается то, что случается и с этим ты ничего не можешь поделать.  

Я хромаю, повредила мышцу на левой ноге.  И кажется, что у меня сейчас не так уж много выбора, а есть только то, что я могу делать сейчас.  Я, конечно, могу отказаться от этого сейчас и подождать до завтра или после завтра, но  ведь завтра будет очередное сейчас, поэтому ждать не имеет никакого смысла.

Выбралась сегодня в наш местный парк  и исходя из ситуации, в которой я сейчас нахожусь, решила сделать так, чтобы эта вылазка оказалась крутой.

Пруд как назло оказался довольно скучным, грязным и недоброжелательным, но в какой-то момент он расщедрился и на моем пути повстречалась белочка, а чуть позднее и прекрасная самка Mалларда. 

Generally, life is good!

Free Ride

I was puzzled by behavior of these Gadwall ducks.  Whether it was a fight for territory or just one of the ducks decided to "ride for free". In any case, it was fun to watch them interact with each other learning something new about their behavior. 

Life goes on.

Male Wood Duck is Looking for a Mate

There are more males among Wood Ducks than females and this creates a fierce competition between drakes for partners. The drake has to show a female his beauty, readiness to protect from other male rivals and, of course, strength. 

The Wood Duck drake in the photo above displays his beauty in the hope that some nearby female will notice him.

Unfortunately, none of the females appreciated all the wonderful qualities of this drake.  This happens from time to time, the females can allow themselves to be picky; they are in majority. 

Life goes on.

 

The Leader is Chosen

Frozen Great Salt Lake covered with thin layer of snow.  A group of Northern Pintails and Mallards gathered near a long narrow strip of water.  Looks like they are having a social meeting.

We are separated only by the rocky shore with narrow winding paths. I really want to get closer to this group, but I'm afraid to frighten away the ducks. 

While watching a group I see how suddenly the drake Mallard becomes an unspoken leader among Northern Pintails and Mallards and the initiator of the take-off.  I am guessing he sent a warning signal to the flock when I tried to get a little closer.

Ducks are remarkable birds, they listen, observe carefully behavior of others and very sensitive to warning signals.

The first to respond to the leader's command to take off are a few females Mallards.  You can see them on the photo above.

Then shortly a few Northern Pintails took off following the drake Mallard.

In a few seconds the most hesitant members of the group will join the others and the whole group will be gone.

Generally, life is good!

Male Mallard in Flight

 

A fly-by from Male Mallard on a freezing cold morning. 

***

We are having a snow storm that started yesterday and will last today until late at night.  I would like to complain but can't, because we need water in the summer.  

The irony of ironies, that during yesterday and today I dropped all shoulds and haves and allowed myself to be lazy. What have I done?  Not so much. I was reading a lot, surfed the Internet looking for dogs to adapt and edited my photos.

Life goes on.

Adult Drake Green-winged Teal

 

I don't often encounter and photograph teals, and was glad to see this drake Green-winged Teal on the Bear River.  Teals are very small ducks.  Both male and females have the green streaks behind their eyes.

When I saw this drake, I thought that he was a little confused, not knowing what to do.

The Green-winged Teal is trying to figure out where to find a patch of open water.  

 

Drake decided to walk on the ice and explore the area, and if there was no open water, he would leave this area and fly away in search of thawed ponds. 

Watching this Teal, I thought about the difficulties they face in our cold winters, about the lack of food and the inadequate shelter to protect these incredible birds from predators. This winter is especially hard for our birds.

Life goes on.

 

Puzzling Behavior

 

Last week watching and photographing Common Goldeneyes I was puzzled by their behavior. 

Among the Goldeneyes were constant fights over fish in the water but some of them managed to escape their attackers and carry their catch on the ice.  But for some reason they often left the fish there uneaten. Why?

The drake male Common Goldeneye examines its catch carefully.

At some point,  I was sure that the fish will be eaten but I was wrong.

Goldeneyes eat small fish.  Maybe this catch is too big for this drake or fish doesn't taste good.  

The catch remains on the ice, and the drake Goldeneye heads for the water to continue catching his fish and fighting for it.

By the way, fish that was caught in the water was eaten immediately.  Instinct not to lose the catch always took over.

Life goes on.

It's Time for Bathing - II.

Taking photos of birds in action is exciting but always challenging.  Yesterday was a cloudy day and I needed a lot of light but didn't have enough. I photographed anyway hoping for the best.

 

From the numerous photos I took yesterday I was lucky enough to get a few decent.  They are here.

Bathing sometimes angers others.

How energetic this male Mallard is in bathing.

Life goes on.

It's Time For Bathing

In the begging, while watching Mallard Ducks I thought  they had a very similar bathing style.  Then, looking closer, I noticed that each duck bathed in its own  way.  

Sometimes ducks, as in the photo above, covered themselves with their wings, like a cloak.  Others flapped their wings to shake off excess water. And everyone, without exception, bathed, vigorously splashing in the water.

Today I photographed mostly male Mallard Ducks.  The day was gray and gloomy and their winter plumage was so pleasing to the eye.

Life goes on.