Ducks, ducks, ducks! Wild about the City is back!

Two male redheads, Aythya americana, with their mates, cruise the waters of Ashbridges Bay Wednesday.

Wild about the City has been on hiatus for two months, attempting to straighten out major computer snafus. We might be sorted out . . . don’t want to push our luck too hard, but hoping for the best. So, with apologies for the long absence between posts, herewith an attempt at an update.

And an exciting one, too, for the avid duck watchers in our midst.

Down at the bay, (Ashbridge’s, that is) huge rafts of ducks have been present for the past several weeks. We have been blessed with a wonderful assortment: hundreds of our usual homebody mallards (still wonderful, for all their commonplaceness); scores of gadwalls, long-tails, buffies, goldies and scaups.

Lately, male American mergansers have been adding their elegance to the mix. The female mergansers stay in our bay  in huge numbers all winter. But sometimes it’s hard to see even one of their mates. Not now, though. There are dozens of males gliding about silently, looking like sleek waiters wearing fiery orange bowties.  The male mergansers stay annoyingly far out in the bay, way too far for even my longest lens to reach properly. So, until I can convince one of them to venture closer to shore, I am male merganserless — in the picture department.

But yesterday, a kind fellow birder approached me on the path out by the peanut and asked if I had seen the canvasbacks. . . Canvasbacks? I asked, quite dumbfounded. I had not seen a one all winter.  I got out my binoculars to scan the raft of ducks more closely — and there were, indeed, two pairs of ducks that  I hadn’t realized were there. But they weren’t canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria). They were redheads. Close cousins. Same genus, in fact — Aythya americana. With their huge red heads, yellow eyes and blue-and-black scaup-like bills, completely unmistakeable for anything else.

Hope you enjoy seeing the handsome redheads above.

See you on the trail!

© WATC 2011

spikeymom - February 24, 2011 - 9:17 pm

Good to see you are back!
I love the handsome pair above.

Lynn - March 5, 2011 - 9:46 am

Hooray – you are back! Great to see you on the trail the other day. Did u end up getting a remote harddrive and downloading everything to it to get it off your computer? A ‘terrabite?’ will hold a zillion photos so all should be well. My computer ‘geek’ was in yesterday and told me tho’, that if you drop the HD from even 8″ you can lose the whole thing. He said to get another one and put a copy on it too, so that I have everything in two places. They are always on sale at Staples and will do the trick. So, that is what I’m going to do, as you don’t want just 1 copy that could be toast.
Love the photos – and have seen redheads down there for awhile now. Also all 3 mergansers……..lots of action and the trails might not be so icy after this rain. What a sodden day. I always go out the Spit one day each w’end and have taken some nice shots of the enchanting wee Norther saw-whet owls, and also some long-earred owls. A long trek out there to get to the action. Also saw the pair of King Eider in the East Cove.
Nice to have your glorious photos back to greet me as I work thru the bird sites in the morning!!
Lynn

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