03-18-20
Ruddy Shelduck vs. Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
03-19-20
Blue-winged Teal
Savannah Sparrow
American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
More American Toads
View #2
American Toad #4 out of 11
Top picture of the Ruddy Shelduck includes a Canada Goose in the shot. The shelduck had been strutting around the area seemingly in an aggressive manner. Unknown what affront occurred or with whom, but it appeared to be enticing aggression. At this point, it mixed it up with the goose. The shelduck left a few minutes later.
Most of the winter, the Double-crested Cormorant males were much darker than normal, which made me believe that they were in breeding plumage most of the time. They were much closer in the second photo, and the tufts on the head or "crests," were definitely showing. but not in that photo. I got to a better vantage point, as north as I could get from Goose Island, and snapped a photo of the head, which proved my assumption.
The Song Sparrow photo was a singing bird, and as we now know, "Singing Male" designations in eBird have been replaced with "Singing Bird," since so many female birds have been proven to sing, as well. We are now out of the "male only" norm. It took a century to prove that point.
Hanging in the lowlands at the southeast corner of Boomer Lake, it took an hour to get photos of the American Toad. I'd been hearing them for years but never photographed them until the date these shots were made.
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