The snow is over! So, I went walking around the park. Again, mostly just to look at the pretty snow, not so much for birding. But when I got to the lake, I saw this [edit: Mandarin] duck! So gorgeous. I actually texted poor Jack who stayed home feeling a bit under the weather. [Note: I only realized this was a Mandarin duck a few weeks later, going back through the pictures.] I lost him when I walked around some trees for a better angle, and very soon all of the ducks flew off to a secret undisclosed location.
Over the fountain I saw this Cooper's hawk perched and looking around. Again I wished for the big camera. Eventually I will learn this lesson. I told a couple of serious looking photo- graphers about the hawk, that turned out to be a mistake. I should only tell people who have binoculars about birds, even hawks. Eventually I will learn this lesson also. Anyway I continued on to the pond, where - I saw the wood duck again! Mixing it up with the mallards, shamelessly begging for bread, it was awesome! Also there again was the mystery duck I saw mating with a mallard male a few days ago. In the last picture you can see how she's bigger than the mallard females, which makes me think she's really a different kind of duck, not a color morph.
The snow is over! So, I went walking around the park. Again, mostly just to look at the pretty snow, not so much for birding. But when I got to the lake, I saw this [edit: Mandarin] duck! So gorgeous. I actually texted poor Jack who stayed home feeling a bit under the weather. [Note: I only realized this was a Mandarin duck a few weeks later, going back through the pictures.] I lost him when I walked around some trees for a better angle, and very soon all of the ducks flew off to a secret undisclosed location.
Over the fountain I saw this Cooper's hawk perched and looking around. Again I wished for the big camera. Eventually I will learn this lesson. I told a couple of serious looking photo- graphers about the hawk, that turned out to be a mistake. I should only tell people who have binoculars about birds, even hawks. Eventually I will learn this lesson also. Anyway I continued on to the pond, where - I saw the wood duck again! Mixing it up with the mallards, shamelessly begging for bread, it was awesome! Also there again was the mystery duck I saw mating with a mallard male a few days ago. In the last picture you can see how she's bigger than the mallard females, which makes me think she's really a different kind of duck, not a color morph.
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