Showing posts with label domestic Ruddy Shelduck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label domestic Ruddy Shelduck. Show all posts
Sunday, December 1, 2019
Saturday, June 1, 2019
2019 Green Herons and Nestlings in the 'Hood
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Oklahoma State Bird
Least Flycatcher
Domestic Ruddy Shelduck
This beautiful bird is called an exotic in the United States, but it is a native of Eurasia. Shockingly, it looks like a duck, but sounds like a goose and tends to hand around with our Canada Geese. The Ruddy Shelduck has been in the area over a year. It tends to get lonely during breeding season, and parent geese shun it, as their job is to protect their young from predators, at all costs, even if this beautiful duck is a friendly sort.
05-26-19 Continuation
Adult Green Heron Feeding Four Nestlings
Female Green Heron Brings Up the Rear
Guard Duty For Predators
05-27-19
0715-0811/75-76 F/mostly cloudy/SSE-12 to S-16/79% RH/29.95 Hg and falling to 29.94 Hg and steady
Day 3 with our Green Heron nestlings in sight. They could well be older, just not have been big enough to be seen at the nest. Parents stay very close at this stage. When one is procuring food, the other will be on or near the nest.
05-28-19
0725-0837/74-77 F/variable clouds/S-17/79-78% RH/29.74-29.75 Hg and falling
Day 4 with nestlings in sight.
Green Heron Nestlings #1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
05-30-19
0711-0830/62-68 F/clear/87-79% RH/29.94 Hg and steady to 29.99 Hg and rising
Day #6 with Green Herons growing well and quickly. They have crowded the parent out of the nest and don't like being too contained. They know when dad arrives with food and are very attentive. This was also the day that we discovered that we didn't have four nestlings, we had five. Look closely and you will notice that fact, as well.
Bell's Vireo seems to have moved into the area, too. I believe this singing male was the former bird that had territory running across the lake from the east to the west side.
Heron Cove is turning into a very productive area that had swamp habitat during the excess rain, which drew a good number of neotropical migrants. There is still a bit of swamp area left, but most has receded. No waterthrush has been seen yet, but the habitat is quite appropriate.
Brown Thrashers are also nesting at Heron Cove, as well as the Warbling Vireo, Northern Cardinal, and a pair of Eastern Kingbirds recently paired here.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Friday, May 26, 2017
The Beauty of Boomer Lake, Starring the Migratory Black Tern
Black Tern
Black Tern
Ruddy Shelduck x Domestic Variant
Black Tern
Brown Thrasher
Prothonotary Warbler
American Goldfinch
Least Flycatcher
05-20 (Saturday) and 05-21-17 (Sunday)
Last weekend provided a small push of migratory birds with a minor low pressure system coming through. With it, came the largest amounts of Black Terns that have graced Boomer Lake. I believe the high count was thirty-five terns. It was no easy task, but I managed a few decent shots. These terns were a lot faster than the usual local birds, which provided some good practice on how to photograph them.
These terns tend to migrate through the North American interior. In summer, they tend to become marsh birds and in winter, graces both Central and South America as coastal seabirds. These birds forage for insects on the wing, dipping to the water to also glean fish from the surface.
Also in the background was another Ruddy Shelduck, much more of a mixed domestic than the last one. This bird was also a wild bird that had reverted from its original domestic state, as can be observed above.
Birds are with young at various stages. The first parent birds are the Canada Geese and Mallards, followed by the American Robin and Mourning Dove, then the grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds.
Our Green Heron family is sitting on a nest or two.
Boomer Creek should soon have young Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Eastern Phoebes, assorted Woodpeckers, and Prothonotary Warblers, to name just a sampling.
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