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During my most recent trip to California, I had a chance to drop in on Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in Los Angeles. The waterfowl there were mighty tame, with wild ducks, geese, and cormorants practically posing for portraits. But the bird that really captured my eye was not purebred but rather poultry.

This fine fellow [...]

Birding the Cape: the west coast
May 29, 2008

For my second trip to South Africa in just three weeks, this time to Cape Town (the first was to Johannesburg), I decided to hire a professional guide for the two (actually, one-and-a-half) days I would be there. Normally I’m happy just to hire a car and wander [...]

On a weekend that is, at least around here, cold, gray, and dreary, it’s entirely possible that not everyone is exercising their avian observation muscles to the fullest. Here’s a waterfowl workout for you weekend warriors… aficionados from either side of the Atlantic can and should play along:

Easy, right? I’m sure you don’t need it, [...]

Just two short years ago, I first beheld the the wondrous waterfowl that I’d come to regard as my favorite duck, bar none - the White-cheeked Pintail.

The White cheeked Pintail (Anas bahamensis), also known as the Bahama Pintail, is a dabbling duck that plies brackish waterways throughout its range. Three similar subspecies are distributed regionally [...]

One of the sweetest subsections of the duck family has to be the sawbills, formally known as mergansers. Mergansers are a family of diving waterfowl in Merginae, the seaduck subfamily of Anatidae. Ironically, only one of these seaducks is truly a seafarer, the others favoring rivers and lakes. The name ‘merganser’ is said to have [...]

One of my favorite ducks is the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Something about their namesake, absurdly long, shovel-like bills, elegant plumage, and cool vocalizations make me want to see them on every birding excursion. Or maybe it is their clever methods of eating, whether straining the water with their bills or swimming in [...]

Diabolical. Truly diabolical. That’s how I felt, anyway, when I made up the Diabolical Female Waterfowl Quiz. But, once again, some dedicated birders have proven themselves up to the challenge by managing to correctly identify all five partial pictures of female waterfowl, truly a magnificent accomplishment. To see for yourself the [...]

If previous incarnations of the Diabolical ID Quiz left you scratching your head this one might leave you wanting to cut it right off your shoulders.  Female waterfowl, also called hens, are usually drab colors, the better to hide themselves when they are incubating their eggs.  They are still beautiful, but in muted tones that [...]

The Diabolical Waterfowl ID Quiz was both more and less diabolical than I had intended.  It’s surprising how drake ducks, with their bright colors, can still be so difficult to identify if one only has a small chunk of the bird to use for one’s identifying attempt.  Nonetheless, correct answers were, eventually, given for each [...]

Yes, it is time for another diabolical ID quiz. This one is all about ducks, and, to make it a bit easier, just drakes. The rules are the same as the last one: put your guesses in the comments, making sure to indicate which picture each guess applies to. And use the FULL common names [...]

Pink-footed Goose. Barnacle Goose. Western Kingbird. After seeing those three birds in the first thirty seconds of actually birding on Sunday it would be difficult to do any better for the rest of the day but Jory and I were sure as heck going to try. First, we headed out to [...]

Yesterday was the day I would break 300 birds for the year in New York State. A plethora of rare-for-New York birds had been spotted way out east on Long Island, birds I had been too lazy to chase the previous weekend. This past weekend, however, fueled by fine Thanksgiving food, I knew [...]

Up at 4. On the road by 4:45. Dark Adirondacks, cold, long, lonely highway. Dawn. Trees, rock, snow. Exit 39, left on 9, heading north. Geese up and flying west, Snow Geese, several small flocks. Look for left turn, Spellman Road, there, driving west, geese are south. Another [...]

It’s been awhile since I last decided to write about a birding excursion in verse so I figured it was about time. The Gulper See, the destination versified here, is a large lake and nature preserve about an hour-and-a-half’s drive northwest of Berlin. I decided to visit the Gulper See on Jochen’s advice and I [...]

The Pochard is a diving duck of Eurasia, similar to the North American Redhead and Canvasback. Somehow, despite having visited several good locations like the Gulper See that should have had at least a few, no Pochard was kind enough to swim or fly through my field of view. Until today, that is, [...]

Three broods, one of 11, one of 9, and one of 3, all in Congress Park in Saratoga Springs. I was wondering where all the female ducks had went…

The oddball duckling was with what looked like a pure female Mallard, and all the other ducklings looked like normal Mallards. Was some egg dumping going [...]

Mallards, though common, are often overlooked. Many birders consider them a “trash” bird, that is, one that is so common that they are hardly worth taking the time to study or appreciate. This is unfortunate, as the gaudy green of the male Mallard is certainly worth looking at and is matched in its [...]

Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus
Martin Mere WWT Centre, Lancashire, England, 13 January 2005
 

 
All photographs © Charlie Moores.