While out west this past summer, I still kept up with some of the rarities showing up back home in Maryland and nearby Delaware. Roseate Spoonbills were the rave at Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware, and are still be reporting. (I’ve had no time to visit. 😕)
Another summer sensation has been (and still is) a small flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that arrived and stayed for the summer, hanging with the resident Mallards in a housing community’s retention pond outside Clayton, Delaware. How lucky for me they were less than a half-mile from our daughter’s home!
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Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
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Black-bellied Whistling Ducks primarily live year-round in eastern South Carolina and Georgia, all of Florida, as well as other portions of Texas, Alabama, New Mexico, and Mexico where they are most abundant.
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Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
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Black-bellied Whistling Duck and his Cormorant buddy, with a Mallard looking on
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With their bright pink beaks, legs, and feet, they are an exotic beauty.
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Black-bellied Whistling Duck
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Black-bellied Whistling Duck
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Black-bellied Whistling Duck
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And just as their name suggests, these ducks do whistle while in flight.
