I am posting today simply to put some feelers out for IDs on a couple of birds. Honey Bunny and I decided to take a drive because it was such an awesome day and we ended up at the Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City. After a quick picnic lunch we set off around the lake, her to get some laps in for exercise and me to capture to some shots of the tons of birds lounging about on the water.
First off, there were quite a few of these birds that are just so
full of themselves, they swim around with their noses in the air, like
they own the place. Of course, I didn't see too many other birds
challenging them and their attitudes.
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| Double-creasted Cormorant |
There were quite a few of these Ring-necked out there. They pretty much hung by themselves and with the Coots and Redheads.
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| Ring-necked Duck |
Speaking of Redheads, there were a couple dozen of these swimming
about. I find it interesting how similar the bills of the Redheads and
the Ring-necked Ducks. Maybe this is why they get along so well.
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| Redhead |
Oh yes, the Double-crested Cormorant Air Force was out with a display
of strength. They skimmed the water all afternoon, looking for that
one lucky fish to invite to lunch.
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
This Mallard just seemed content to admire his reflection in the smooth water.
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| Mallard |
And there were two of these characters swimming around with the
Mallards. C'mon now! There is no way any duck should be allowed to
look this ridiculously awesome. I'm sure they both knew that the other
ducks couldn't hope to look as good as them, even with a trip to Earl
Schieb.
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| Wood Duck |
Now for the IDs. I saw some birds at the park that I needed just a bit of confirmation for. The first were these two ducks, the ones in back. I'm thinking they are just a light, buff-colored variant of the Mallards. They seemed to hang with the Mallards quite cozily, so that would seem to be a correct call.
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| Mallards? |
The other set of birds has me wondering if I'm right. On the spur of the moment, I was thinking grackles, but after close inspection of the photos, I don't think so. I didn't really have a chance to look for long because they all took to flight almost immediately.
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| Brown-headed Cowbirds? |
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| Brown-headed Cowbird? |
After looking at the photos, the bills are all wrong to be grackles. The coloring and bills appear more in line with Brown-headed Cowbirds, but I'm not even sure about that. So, I have a post in at iBird to see if I can get some help with the ID here.
Anyway, that's all for today. There were about a billion Great-tailed Grackles around, struttin' their stuff. Once someone asked what my favorite bird was and I said the Great-tailed Grackle, because they have some serious attitude. Okay, so there weren't a billion of them. More like a hundred and fifty. But, when the whole flock took to the sky and circled the lake a couple of times before filling up the trees it looked like a lot more.
Take care and get out there and do some birding!
