For Duck Fans

These are some photos for any duck fans out there. The first is a shot of some Northern Pintails in flight. The males have a “racing stripe” along their neck and the male at the bottom is displaying the namesake pintail. These ducks summer in Canada and the north-central US and winter in the southern US and Mexico. We are at the very northernmost edge of their wintering area and we may see them during the winter on occasion.

American Wigeons migrate through Massachusetts and we see them in the fall and spring. This is picture of male that I took a few years ago and shows the identifying markings: light gray bill with black tip, white cap, green stripe behind the eye and white lower body with a black tail.

This is one that was having some difficulty with landing maneuvers in some high winds a few days ago. He took off from the water about 100 yards away and flew toward me. I got these shots before he dropped out of sight behind the reeds on the near shore. He was was still dripping water and some drops are visible in the photograph. He landed safely after getting his act together..

I recently did a post of Long-tailed Duck photos and here are a couple more. This is a male that stayed above the water long enough for a good look. He is showing off the namesake tail.

I waited for a trio of Long-tails to surface so I could get a group shot. I got the male, female and immature male together but a Harbor Seal photobombed the shot. The ducks are wondering where the guy with the whiskers came from.