Duck Duck Goose – #8
Winter duck or goose? If it’s a goose, you better run! 😉
Duck…..
Mallard (year-round)
Duck…..
Wood Ducks in the rain (they’re back!)
Goose!
Canada Geese
Duck…..
Green-winged Teal
(heading home now!)
Duck…..
Long-tailed Duck
(heading home now!)
Goose!
Snow Geese
(been long gone!)
Duck…..
Bufflehead (male)
(heading home now!)
Duck…..
Bufflehead (female)
(heading home now!)
Duck…..
Lesser Scaup
(heading home now!)
Duck…..
Surf Scoters
(heading home now!)
Duck…..
Black Scoters
(heading home now!)
Goose!
Canada Geese competing for a Spring nesting location
Whew! I hope you had your sneakers on! 😁
Bay Photos by Donna 
Wonderful photos, Donna. I’m not too swift on my feet these days! 😉
Thank you, Eliza! Me either!! 😉
Lovely collection! Some of these I’ve never even heard of before – I need to spend more time with ducks!
Just curious… what is that grass-covered object in your last photo?
Thank you, Sam! Winter waterfowl is a big deal around the Chesapeake Bay, we get so many species, to the delight of birders, photographers…..and hunters. 😢 The grass-covered object is a hunter’s winter duck blind on my neighbor’s property. And a Canada Goose nesting location during the spring/summer! Around the bay, I’ve also seen Osprey nest on duck blinds.
Long tailed duck and Bufflehead – so totally lovely.
Gwen.
Thank you, Gwen! The Long-tails are indeed gorgeous and you would love to watch the little Buffleheads, they are quite entertaining and oh-so adorable!
Beautiful sightings and images of the Ducks, and Geese!
Thank you, Deborah!
Wonderful photos
Thank you, Sheree!
Lovely collection again. The snow geese should be making their migratory stop along the St-Lawrence River shores soon…(Suzanne)
Thank you, Suzanne! Oh, that should be a lovely sight!
It certainly is as there hundreds of them in fields and along the shores. We saw it only once as the sites are a bit far from Montreal. They stop in the spring on their way up and in the fall on their way down.
I LOVED this creative game of duck-duck-goose, Donna! Put a smile on my face. And how very exciting to have the joy of a photo of the very rare long-tailed duck.
Thank you, Jet, glad you enjoy my ‘game’! We are fortunate that the Long-tails winter on the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding deeper rivers, and this past winter I saw more than any other year. They are stunning!
Beautiful selection of ducks and geese.
Thank you!
It is certainly noisy on our nearby lakes…Spring has arrived.
And now ours are all but gone! The replaced noise? The Osprey, yay!
A wonderful set, Donna! That Green-winged teal, what a shot 😊
Thank you, Belinda! The Green-winged Teal’s mate was there, but she was in with the grass and the photo wasn’t at all complimenting. They are such a pretty duck, I wish I seen more!
Thanks, Donna. I feel like I should print this up and hang it on my fridge as a reference. Maybe keep one in my car too! This brain of mine can’t remember it all. 😂
You’re welcome, Pepper! If I didn’t see all these ducks on a regular basis during the winter, I’d have a hard time IDing too. Me, I’m still learning gull/tern IDs lol, they all look alike up in the sky!
Something about Scoters that gives me a smile every time I see one, but in this case, the star of the show for me is the Long-Tailed. Slowly becoming my nemesis bird (after the Groove-Billed Ani) – I’ve seen a couple that went wayward on their way back home, but for the most part strike out whenever I go on the hunt specifically for them.
Those Long-tails are pretty darn gorgeous, if I see one in a wide mix, I instantly go to it for photos too!
You have so many more beautiful waterbirds than we do Donna, I love their colours. We only have one true goose, but you have several beautiful ones, especially love the snow goose.
Thank you, Ashley! All the colors, and then a pure white goose that can stay white, I love it! The Chesapeake Bay hosts a massive number of duck and goose species. And they are highly sought after by both photographers and hunters.
Another good series idea. Yup, gotta keep your sneakers on around geese!
Thank you, Julie! For sure, you do NOT want to be goosed by a goose!
What a nice collection of ducks and geese Donna. That Mallard drake’s teal head is so iridescent isn’t it. Last week the Wood Duck became the official duck of Michigan. In the last photo, why is the big straw bundle sitting on the platform? Is that for the geese and other waterfowl to use for their nests?
Thank you, Linda! How awesome to have the Wood Duck as your state’s official duck, what a stunning selection! Maryland does not have an official state duck, although people have been pushing for it to be the Canvasback.
In my last photo with the pair of Canada Geese on a platform while the rest were in the water, the strawed-up platform is a hunter’s winter duck blind on my neighbor’s property. The hunters attach marsh grass to their little shelter for camouflage, and then put out strings of decoys to entice ducks to come closer. It’s a serious part of the Chesapeake Bay region’s life here. I do like that Canada Geese and Osprey build nests on the blinds come Spring! 😊 For the most part, they do not use the straw grass, they bring sticks as usual.
I think the Wood Duck is a great choice too Donna. We’ve never had an official state duck before … maybe it will catch on across the nation and the Canvasback will be chosen for Maryland.
Our goose nests are sticks too … I just saw it lined up next to the blind and wondered.
You know I thought it might be a blind, but then I thought the geese would not look to nest in a designated hunting area. I hate that this happens. I went to Pointe Mouilee once and saw how they had this huge blind, which is ADA compliant so a person on a wheelchair can use the boardwalk to get there, but I was surprised, like here, why you would have so many birders coming here and then designate it as a duck hunting venue? They did the same thing at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. Good place for birding and then a few years ago, they allowed duck hunters to go there. “Mind the hunters” the sign says. I won’t go after September as I don’t want to see ducks dropping out of the sky.
There is something essentially serene about ducks.
I agree!
Perfect Mallard and Long-tailed Duck portraits! A nice collection, Donna.
Thank you, Barbara!
Quite the collection, Donna. The Bufflehead really caught my attention. It’s an appropriate name!
Thank you, Curt
Fantastic! And now I know what buffleheads and wood ducks look like. 😏
Thank you, we love our winter ducks around the Chesapeake Bay!