Barrow's GoldenEYE

 The most common duck that we see at Yellowstone is the Barrow's goldeneye. Here in Minnesota the Barrow's is rare and people come from all over the state to see one but in Yellowstone they are so common that we often times just drive by and say, "it's just a Barrow's".

Barrow's Goldeneye

 There are two species of goldeneye ducks, the common goldeneye and the Barrow's goldeneye. As their name would suggest the common goldeneye has a much wider range and is more commonly seen. The common goldeneye is a circumpolar species that nests up in the taiga regions of North America, Europe and Asia. The Barrow's goldeneye, pictured above, is found primarily in western Canada, Alaska and the north western United States. There is also a secondary population that nests in north eastern Canada and Iceland. The Barrow's goldeneye was named after Sir John Barrow who promoted much of the early explorational voyages into the Canadian Arctic when he served in the Admiralty during the early 1800's.  Both species of goldeneye are cavity nesters and will nest in tree cavities or nesting boxes. Young chicks leave the nest with in days of hatching and have to jump from the nest cavity. This photo was taken at Yellowstone National Park.

Barrow's Goldeneye

I photographed these Barrow's goldeneye ducks in Yellowstone. While most Barrow's goldeneye are found in the northwestern portions of North America there is also a population in Iceland. It was the birds in Iceland that were first described and named after Sir John Barrow.

Barrow's Goldeneye.

It is common to see flocks of common goldeneye spending the winter in Minnesota on open parts of the Mississippi river. Each year someone will post on the list server that they spotted a Barrow's mixed in with the flock and so people will come from all over and spend hours trying to find a Barrow's

When we go out west to Yellowstone the Barrow's goldeneye is always the most common duck that we see in the park. Usually I take a few pictures, since we do not really have them at home, but quickly they become as common as mallards and we pass them by when we see them.
Barrow's goldeneye are fascinating birds. They breed near inland lakes in the northwestern United States and Canada. They are a cavity nester and often lay their eggs in the nest of another goldeneye or cavity nesting duck. This is not too big of a deal though because shortly after hatching, typically with in a couple of days, the Barrow's chick are pretty elf sufficient and are able to swim and dive to find prey such as small fish, vegetation, aquatic insects and other aquatic vertebrates.

Yellowstone Part 2

With the weekend over the weather in Yellowstone began to change. We woke up Monday morning to cloudy skies but as we headed into the park some of the clouds began to break up allowing hints of blue skies to peak through.

We were hoping to see some more grizzly bears so we decided to head over to the area around Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake. After checking on the bison carcass in the Yellowstone River where we had photographed the bear the day before and stopping for a bathroom break at the fishing bridge we headed out towards the east entrance to the park.
The east entrance was closed, because of the possibility of an avalanche, so we decided to hang out at Sedge Bay and see if any of the grizzlies that had been seen in the area would show up. We did not see any grizzly but while we waited we were treated to a little show by the marmots living in the rocks. There were also waterfowl down on the lake to photograph, most of which were Barrow's goldeneye.
After a while I got bored of waiting for grizzly so we went back to Fishing Bridge to eat some lunch and then headed around the northern loop of the park. When we got to Mammoth we stopped for a bit to photograph the wildlife in town. Michelle took a few pics of the resident elk herd while I focused more on photographing the mockingbirds and the mountain bluebird, pictured above.

We spent the remainder of the day out at the Tower Junction and Lamar Valley. We did see one grizzly, from quite a ways away, but mostly we photographed ungulates like bison, and their calves, bull elk and pronghorn antelope, and then headed through the park back to West Yellowstone where we were staying.The next morning the weather was even worse. Since we knew that it would be difficult to photograph in the weather we took our time getting going and hung around the hotel for a while. When we finally headed into the park we found that the weather was making it difficult to drive. In most places it was sleeting and raining but around the lake it was even worse with fog often obscuring the road.
We did find a few things to photograph, though the lighting did not make for the best pictures. This male American kestrel was perched on the side of the road near the lake eating some type of rodent in the snow. I guess he did not mind frozen food. We, on the other hand were looking for something warm to eat so we headed over to Fishing Bridge for some lunch.

At lunch we found out that a mother grizzly and cub, which had been spotted at Pelican Creek a few days earlier, had spent most of Monday out by the Lake Lodge just a few miles away from Fishing Bridge. So we decided to head over and look for her since we would have loved to get some shots of a tiny grizzly cub. We never were able to find her, but on our way back from Lake we spotted this beautiful coyote. This was one of several coyotes that we spotted on the trip but it was one of the most attractive coyotes that I have ever seen, with the light color and clean coat.
The bad weather continued on through out the day. It was the only day in the whole week were we did not really see the sun at any time. So we decided to head out of the park early and catch a nice dinner. On our way out we did spot this sandhill crane doing its best to stand up straight in the snow and the biting wind.

Barrow's Goldeneye

Watery Wednesday: Barrow's Goldeneye

Each winter flocks of goldeneye ducks migrate into the area from their breeding grounds in Northern Minnesota and Canada.

As the lakes and ponds that they spend their summer on begin to freeze they head south in search of open water.

Many end up spending the winter in the southern part of the state where the Mississippi River does not freeze. This includes parts of the river from Prescott, WI. down through Redwing, MN and south to Reeds Landing and Wabasha, MN.

Most of the goldeneye in these flocks are the more widely distributed common goldeneye but every so often some spots, or thinks that they spot, a Barrow's goldeneye mixed in. When this happens then birders from all over the area converge to see a bird that is rare to this area.

Whenever we travel to Yellowstone the most common duck that we see is the Barrow's goldeneye. They can be found in almost every lake, pond, pool, river and stream. So I always try and take advantage when we are there and take a lot of Barrow's goldeneye pics. I found this Barrow's on trout lake. Originally he was on the other side of the lake but he took off to chase another goldeneye that was on the lake, they are very territorial especially in the spring. Fortunately I was in the right place and the right time and was able to snap this series of pics.

Yellowstone Barrow's Goldeneye

This past winter there was quit a bit of excitement in the bird community around home because of a harlequin duck and Barrow's goldeneye that were wintering in the St Croix River near Prescott, Wisconsin. I made quite a few trips to Prescott and photographed the harlequin several times but I was never able to spot the Barrow's that had been reported. Since the bird was reported to be mixed in with a flock of common goldeneye it was difficult to pick out and more then one person misidentified a common goldeneye who was facing a weird angle as a Barrow's.
At Yellowstone this year there were barrow's goldeneye everywhere. We had seen them in Yellowstone on past trips but nothing with the frequency that we saw them with this year.
There were Barrow's in many of the small lakes and ponds that dot the landscape between Norris and Mammoth.

There were Barrow's out in the Lamar River, not far from Soda Butte.
There were even Barrow's in the small portions of Yellowstone Lake that were not frozen.
At first I was very excited, frequently stopping to get a pic. These were Barrow's goldeneye after all and not something that we typically have many of, close to home.
After a while though we got to the point where it was, "don't bother stopping it's just another Barrow's."
We did get some real nice pics though and this winter when everyone is hoping to see a Barrow's I will be able to go back and look at my pics and remember how beautiful they were in the warm May sun.