Quite a bit of activity at Fish Creek. Song Sparrows galore. Lots of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and Pine Siskins. A large number of ducks - mostly mallards and Barrow's Goldeneye; but also a pair of Common Mergansers that I carefully stalked for a half-hour or so with some success.
A pair of Common Mergansers at Fish Creek
The Merganser couple were very photogenic
A Song Sparrow peeps out of a Spruce tree
And just before I got back to the car I spotted this fella who I chased around the perimeter of the parking lot for 20 minutes or so. Not a great pic - but not too bad. - I consider this engagement to be a draw...
A Red-Breasted Sapsucker
Happy Easter to all my Christian friends.
3 comments:
Nice bird pics. Friday I saw what I think was a Downy Woodpecker over near Moose Lake. It could have been its similarly appointed cousin the Hairy Woodpecker, but after consulting the book and Doug's bird app, I'm going with Downy. Both are uncommon in these parts, according to Armstrong.
I remember agonizing over the same issue with the woodpecker I saw on the Mendenhall River Trail last spring...decided it was the Hairy Woodpecker (see pic at right of blog). But for the life of me I no longer remember why I concluded it was the one instead of the other. I have found it useful from time to time to go to Google Images, type in the name of one, then the other, and peruse the pics of other birders.
At the end of the day...it really don't matter...it's still big time fun...
Alright. I admit it. It's been driving me nuts. So I backtracked to figure out why I concluded I saw a Hairy Woodpecker. The answer: No black bars on the white tail feathers!
Downy woodpeckers feature said bars as shown here: http://www.judyscards.com/male_downy_woodpecker
Whew! I feel so much better now...
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