More about Thursday's Birding- Ducks

As I stated in my previous blog, the best thing about Thursdays birding was discovering the Little Egret.  Birding wise, we did not find a large number of birds, but, I picked up another first.  It was not a life bird, rather it was the first time that I had been able to photograph this species.  Last year, I did get the bird as a lifer, however, I did not obtain any photographs.  The bird is an Eurasian Wigeon and usually at least one spends the winter in the Mill pond located in Marston Mills, Massachusetts.  When we arrived at the pond, there were a number of different species of ducks in the water.  Initially, the Eurasian Wigeon was not present.  I was able to photograph American Wigeons, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck and the ubiquitous Mallards.  Suddenly, from around the corner swam the Eurasian Wigeon in all its beautiful color, the head a red-dish brown with a buffing for had its flanks and back, a pale gray and it's breast is pinkish.

Eurasian Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon

Northern Shoveler

American Wigeon

Gadwall Pair

American Wigeon

Northern Shoveler - look at its bill and you can see how it obtained its name

Ring-neck Duck

Other species of birds that we saw at the Mill Pond were Mute Swans, A Belted Kingfisher, A Great Blue Heron, and a light morph of a Red-tailed Hawk flying overhead.

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Mute Swan

Red-tailed Hawk - Light Morph