Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Watery Wednesday: Crex Waterfowl

As the spring progresses many of the waterfowl have already begun to return to the north country. So far besides mallards and Canadian geese, which stay in the area all winter long, I have also seen many types of ducks return.
Many of these birds that I photographed at Crex Meadows, on one of my last trips there last October, have probably already returned to the area. I have already spotted bufflehead ducks, like the female pictured above, on the ponds near Black Dog Lake.
I have also seen American coot around Black Dog Lake as well as Wood Lake and Whitewater State Park.
Although coots look like ducks they are actually part of the rail family. Because of this they have toed feet instead of webbed feet like ducks do.
Canvasback ducks are a bit more rare and I have not yet seen any of these so far this year.
This guy was hiding out in a migrating flock of coots.

8 comments:

Gill - That British Woman said...

are the ones in the foreground babies?

Gill in Canada

Bim said...

It's the first time I see American coots.I also haven't seen any of the ducks here in the UK. Maybe I'm just blind. Thanks for sharing.

Margaret's Ramblings said...

Lovely photos. It's great to see the birds arriving back isn't it. For me in England it is when the swallows arrive.

Margaret

Guy D said...

Yup its that time of year again, awesome photos.

Hope your having a great week!
Guy
Regina In Pictures

litlit said...

Lovely pictures. Have a wonderful Wednesday

2sweetnsaxy said...

Great shots. I like that you captured the coots and you can actually see them. My shots of them always seem too dark so I never post them. Good job.
:-)

Chris said...

Lovely shots. It is very funny to see that they are similar species in Europe but slightly different in the bill form and colors. Thanks for sharing.

amanda said...

Interesting group you have captured there, we don't see much of that kind of water fowl in Calif though!