Duck Duck Goose – #4

Let’s play another round!  Today’s ‘game’ is from the past several weeks, I had to work harder for these!

Ready?  😉

Duck…..

Long-tailed Duck (male)

Duck…..

Long-Tailed Duck (female)

Duck…..

Buffleheads (female & male)

GOOSE!

Snow Goose

Duck…..

Red-breasted Merganser (female)

Duck…..

Hooded Merganser (male)

Duck…..

Ruddy Ducks

GOOSE!

Canada Geese

Duck…..

Surf Scoters (male & female)

Duck…..

Black Scoter (immature male)

Duck…..

Redheads (males)

Duck…..

Lesser Scaup (female & male)

GOOSE!

Greater White-fronted Goose

Thanks for playing along! 😁

Duck Duck Goose – #3

Today’s ‘game’ is from last month’s visit to at a winter waterfowl ‘hot-spot’ for photographers in downtown Cambridge on the Choptank River.

Ready?  Let’s play!  😉

Duck….

Canvasback (male)

Duck…..

Canvasback (female)

Duck…..

Canvasback (male)

Duck…..

American Wigeon (male)

Duck…..

American Wigeon (female)

Duck…..

Lesser Scaup (male)

GOOSE!

Canada Goose

Here’s the big scene that day.  It’s a head-spinning sight!

Stand at a street-wide concrete blockade and view/photograph to your heart’s content!
(two others taking in the view)

Just pick and aim!

Over the years, people have thrown corn feed out to the waterfowl.  The ducks continue to return year after year where the tradition continues.  I picked up a handful of corn on the street and tossed it to a feeding frenzy.  Mr. Goose above asked for more!

Another Duck Duck Goose post tomorrow!

Home Sweet Home

Eastern Bluebirds in my backyard, March 19, 2025.

“When nature made the blue-bird, she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.”

~ John Burroughs (an American naturalist and nature essayist, especially identifying less that of a scientific naturalist than that of “a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world.”

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Welcome Back, Osprey!

It’s been a week since I saw my first Osprey of the season as a fly-over while running errands locally.  But the real excitement was to check yesterday early morning, and see the male Osprey on my neighbor’s nest platform!  I have been watching this platform several times a day, waiting for someone to show up.

Osprey (male)

Waterfront Home

By yesterday afternoon just after 2 pm, I spotted both the male and female on the platform.  Both were back, woohoo!  Astonishingly, nest building has begun immediately with the male bringing a few sticks to the platform.  No wasting time with this fella!  I’ve seen in past years it take a couple days for the pair to recoup and rekindle first.

Fingers crossed and prayers to Above for a successful entire Chesapeake Bay Osprey season after last year’s disastrous nest fails in several regions around the bay, including mine.

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Five On The Wing – #41

1-2-3 Birds & Berries – #14

After birding around my property for 1.5 hours few days ago, I finished by doing one more pass by my berry-laden eastern redcedars that have been ripe and ready for plucking.

My excitement took a leap when I saw a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers were there enjoying the feast!  No one was there earlier!

It was difficult, but I managed to dwindle it down to 10 photos.  😉

Yellow-rumped Warblers

Gulp!

There’s that ‘yellow-rump’!

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1-2-3 Cute As Can Be – #36

Once I saw a little bird,
Go hop, hop, hop.
So I said “little bird,
Will you stop, stop, stop?”
Then I was going to the window
To say “How do you do?”
But he shook his little tail,
And away he flew!

By Walter Crane
(first published in “An Alphabet Of Old Friends” in 1874)

Carolina Wren

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White-breasted Nuthatch

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Carolina Chickadee

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Tufted Titmouse

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Song Sparrow

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Pine Warbler

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Savannah Sparrow

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Field Sparrow

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Dark-eyed Junco

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Yellow-rumped Warbler

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Six Deer A Swimming

It seemed to be too chilly to be going for a swim, but that’s what these six white-tailed deer did yesterday morning.  The swim across was over 3/4 mile.  And, yes, they made it across fine!

Six deer swimming across Broad Creek

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Quacking in the Rain

Shorebirds Terns Gulls – #3 Killdeer

The Killdeer is a shorebird that you don’t need to go to the ‘shore’ to see.

Although you may see them on open sandbars and mudflats, the Killdeer is one of the least water-associated of all shorebirds.  It favors more common inland places to habitat, including lawns, driveways, fields, golf courses, and parking lots.

I get to enjoy Killdeer year-round.  Here’s two recent winter shots.

Killdeer
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center’s parking lot
(there were three running around)

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Man-made water-management pond near a local shopping center

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