Just Ducky!

The sun finally came out after the blizzard.  It was a chilly 5 degrees, but a great day for a walk.  I decided to head down by the Fox River and look for open water.   I never expected to find what I did.  It was an amazing photo and birdwatching day.




I was surprised to see this Tundra Swan on the river.  It is a juvenile which is evident by his dusky colored feathers and the pinkish-orange on his beak.  He was all alone and it's unknown if he has spent the winter here or if he has started migrating back to northern Canada.  The swans spend the winter on the east coast of the United States in the Carolina area or the west coast along California.  The eastern birds will migrate right over the great lakes area on their way north. 

 


This is a flock of Goldeneye ducks. They were very shy and always stayed on the far bank of the river from where I was.  The males and females both have the darker heads with the white feathers.  In the right sunlight, the heads  would look green.  The brown headed ones with gray backs are the juvenile birds.  The Goldeneyes winter in the middle states and will move north to Canada to breed in the spring.  These little birds wings make a high pitched whistling sound when they fly.  You could easily hear when some were approaching.




A pair of Common Mergansers.  They too stayed at the opposite bank of the river from where I was.  This was the best photo I could get of them.  The male is the black and white bird in the front.  The reddish-brown headed one behind, is the female.





I was surprised to find a female Northern Shoveler duck mixed in among the mallards.  No males were spotted, so she must have gotten separated from her flock and has made due with the mallards.

 


As I was standing watching the ducks, suddenly they all started quacking and flying around.  It was chaos.



Here is why.....a Bald Eagle came flying down the river.  He was looking, but did not try to catch anything.  That would have been some exciting photos to capture!

This Coot was as proud as he could be over his find.  He was swimming as fast as he could away from others before someone tried to steal his fish.  It looks like he found a small catfish that was along the shore.




This was my glory moment of my entire photo hobby so far!  There were two Hooded Mergansers at the river.  One came within ten feet of where I was and the sunlight coming through was perfect.  This is the most gorgeous picture I think I have gotten so far.  These little ducks are one of the most stunning birds I have ever seen.  Just beautiful!

 



The final bird of the day was a young Bald Eagle that came flying over the river.  He was very high above the river and made no attempt to get a closer look.