Friday, November 21, 2014

Winter Visitors

I've been walking on the West Bay Walkway again recently and have been happy to see some of our winter visitors back from their northern travels. Pictured today are my favorite diving ducks, a trio of male Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus). On the same walk I saw some Common Mergansers and large flocks of Bufflehead Ducks like those in yesterday's photo. These are birds we don't see at all in the summertime because they migrate further north to nest and rear their young. As winter sets in they fly south and many stop here to brighten our shores until spring.
at

5 comments:

  1. JoJoNovember 21, 2014 at 8:22 AM

    Where do they live in summer? Northern BC/Alaska?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Benjamin MadisonNovember 21, 2014 at 9:09 AM

    Hi JoJo - Nobody really knows where they go in summer - but most that winter here probably don't travel very far north - no further than Southern Alaska. Many probably just move inland and slightly north in summer since they seem to prefer fresh water to salt. Here's a link to a good information site that discusses what is known about their migratory patterns: Click Here

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mike LaplanteNovember 21, 2014 at 9:55 AM

    Up to know I've always classified most birds I see on the water as 'ducks' -- sometimes 'swan' or 'geese'.

    Thanks to your blog I'm actually starting to recognize birds by their names...

    ReplyDelete
  4. William KendallNovember 21, 2014 at 2:25 PM

    They're quite a trio!

    ReplyDelete
  5. StephanieNovember 21, 2014 at 6:00 PM

    Now I know what these are. Saw some in the Estuary today. Nice shot!

    ReplyDelete

Greetings!
I hope you will leave a comment and visit these pages again. Should you wish to contact me directly you can use the email address in the rightmost column of each blog page.Due to increasing amounts of spam comments (it's up to about 200 per day now) I have decided to limit comments from anonymous visitors.