Mallard

 The mallard is the most common duck that we see here in Minnesota. They have a very wide range, which includes most of North America, Europe, northern Asia and northern Africa. They have also been introduced into Australia and New Zealand. They are a large duck weighing approximately 2 to 3 pounds. They are a dabbling duck so the can often be seen floating on the water like a bobber, with their tail on the air and their head underwater searching for aquatic vegetation to eat.

There are several different varieties of mallards. There is the Mexican duck, which is found in Mexico and the southwestern United States, which is a subspecies of the mallard. The Hawaiian duck, found in the Hawaiian Islands is a separate species that is believed to have evolved from the mallard. Mallards will also hybridize with other species of ducks. Mallards with breed with other wild ducks or domesticated species, most of who's ancestries can be traced back to mallards. The duck in the front of this photo is a female hybrid between a mallard and most likely a domesticated duck.   

Mallard

Mallard

The mallard duck is probably one of, if not the most, common and well known ducks. They are found through out much of the northern hemisphere, including North America, Europe and Asia. They are a dabbling duck which means that they are usually found in shallow wetlands where they can be seen dipping their heads under the water to eat aquatic vegetation and invertebrates. The mallard has been introduced into many areas that it is not native to and in some cases, such as the Hawaiian Duck, it has evolved over time to be classified as a different species.

Mallard

It's kind of funny, in a sad sort of way, how we often take things that we think are common for granted. The mallard duck is a good example of this. Because the mallard is common through out most of North America, with popualtions in Canada migrating to the gulf coast area, many people, myself included, do not take the time to photograph them. This is too bad since the male mallard is a very handsome looking duck.

Watery Wednesday: Ducks of Point Douglas

With the weather her getting warmer, it got above 60 degrees on Monday, I have been out looking to photograph waterfowl that should begin migrating through the area. Unfortunately we have not consistently had enough warm days for much of the ice to melt yet so mainly I have just been seeing the mallards, geese, swans and common mergansers that have been around for most of the winter.

Before the birds moved south I did make a couple of trips down to Douglas Point, which is across from Prescott, WI, where I did get a few nice photos.

Back in December(12-13) when I took these pics there were several large flocks of common goldeneye hanging around in the river near Prescott. It sometimes made it difficult to find the harlequin duck, who would often swim with groups of golden eye. this was difficult because the goldeneye and harlequin are about the same size and both are diving ducks so they have similar behavior. As winter continued on the number of goldeneyes that stayed decreased.

I usually tend to stay away from photographing female ducks, let alone posting the pics, because so many different types of female ducks are difficult to identify because they look so similar to females of other types. However since this duck had just captured a huge fish I decided to capture a couple of her images on my camera and now the blog.

I believe that it is a mallard but since the mallard is a dabbling duck, as compared to a diving duck, it would be lot less likely to be eating a large fish. As a dabbler mallards typically eat aquatic vegetation as well as insects and invertebrates although a little extra protein during the winter is nothing to turn your beak on. It is very possible that the fish was already dead when the mallard found it. Either way as soon as she got the fish lined up correctly in her bill she tipped her head back and ate it whole.

My First Birding Trip to Rochester, MN

Here are some more pics from a time when the sun once shined on Minnesota, March 16th. Although by the time that I took these pics the clouds that we have seen most of the past week plus had already begun to role in.
These pictures were taken at Silver Lake Park in Rochester, MN. A lot of people feed the geese at Silver Lake so there were quite a few Canadian geese around.
There were also quite a few mallards. Mallards and Canadian geese are both pretty common year round in Minnesota.
One bird that I have not seen in Minnesota for a while is the American coot.
This was the first time that I had birded Rochester so I was not sure where else to go but since it is only about an hour drive from home I may have to do some research and make another visit.

Northern pintail at Vadnais Lake

Over the past few weeks it has been pretty grey and overcast here in Minnesota, which is pretty typical for the winter months here. On the few occasions that we have seen some sun I have taken advantage of the opportunity and gone out and done some birding. One of the locations that I have been birding at quite a bit recently is Vadnais Lake. Vadnais Lake is on the north east side of the Twin Cities and is not very far from where I work. The lake is split into two halves with a one way road running through the middle. The road is controlled by St Paul Water Management and is used for fishing, hiking, cycling, and birding.

The first few weeks in November the lake was also a staging area for ducks and other waterfowl migrating south to stop, eat and rest up for the remained of their journey. This presented Twin Cities birders with good close up looks at birds who tended to stay near the shoreline of the road.

One of the ducks that I got to see was the northern pintail.

Northern Pintails typically nest in Alaska, Canada, and the central United States as well as northern Europe and Asia. They build a nest on the ground made of grass, leaves and down. The nest is hidden by tall grass or brush and is typically not near the water. The clutch consists of 3 to 12 greenish eggs.

In the winter the Northern Pintail migrate south to the southern US, Central America and the very north edge of South America, southern Europe, Asia and Northern Africa on the Eurasia side.

When I visited the Bosque del Apache, back in February, there were pintails all over but at lake Vadnais there was only one pintail. He was grouped in with a small flock of mallards.

This makes some sense since both mallards and pintails are dabbling ducks. This means that they usually eat plants off the bottom of the lake, river, stream, pond or pool by tipping their tails up into the air and submerging their necks and heads. Other dabblers include wigeons, shovelers, gadwall, and true teals. Swans and geese also typically feed in the dabbling style.

Lunch date with an eagle

Wednesday was another beautiful day. Unfortunately I could not go out and shoot after work because I have been helping out at the Raptor Center on Wednesdays after work. So I decided to run over to Lake Como over my lunch period and enjoy the weather rather then eat in front of my PC like I typically do. I started out by shooting some house sparrows that were foraging in the grass around the lake.Then I moved to the lake where I was trying to get some shots of a few American coots. Unfortunately the coots were right in front of the sun making it very difficult to get any thing more then a silhouette. While I was waiting for the coots to move to a better angle I saw a large figure fly in low over the road and turn towards the gulf course. A tree was partially blocking y view but it looked like it was a bald eagle. It went low on to the golf course where I lost sight of it but since I did not see it fly back out I figured that it may still be close.

I left the coots and headed across the street to the golf course. There was a large group of Canadian geese, with a few mallards mixed in, making noise at a water hazard near to the road. I looked up and there was the eagle. I moved to the other side of the tree and got a couple of shots.
After a while the eagle got bored or annoyed by all of the geese below and he flew off across the golf course. While I was there I took a couple of shots of the male mallards, their heads almost glowing in the bright sunlight.

I did not get much of a chance to eat during lunch that day but it was by far the best lunch time that I have had at work in a while.

Birding Minnesota Valley NWR Long Meadow Lake unit

Since I decided not to go out to Crex Meadows on Saturday, due to the morning rain, I decided to go to the Minnesota Valley NWR Long Meadow Lake Unit instead. I parked over by the old Cedar Avenue Bridge and walked down the trails under the new Cedar Avenue Bridge and over to the Bass Ponds. Over in the trees between the Bass Ponds and the Minnesota River I found quite a few yellow-rumped warblers.

When I first approached the trees most of the warbles took off and flew to trees further away.

So I just stood still by the trees

and soon the warblers began to return to the trees by where I was standing.

I kept standing in one spot not moving except to take a shot.

Since I was not moving the warblers pretty much ignored me.

Several times warblers would land on branches only a couple feet away.

I stood there watching and shooting pictures for about 45 minutes until some bicyclists rode by and flushed all of the birds again, so I moved on. Down on the river there were a lot of Canadian geese, mallards and American coots.On my way back an immature Harris's sparrow popped up on a dead log near the path.

He posed for a couple of shots and then headed back into the deeper foliage.Back by the old Cedar Avenue Bridge I went out and checked the boardwalk. I spotted several mallards and geese out in the shallow water. On the way back to the parking lot I snapped this picture of a mallard in a small pool next to the path.