8 March 2013 - Just Ducky

 After work today, I grabbed Jack and told him "Road trip." Actually I needed to drive across the valley to Gans Ink to pick up an order, but Gans is not very far from the Lee Kay Ponds and Decker Lake.  Thought it would be fun to see what kind of avian life was happening out there--now that I actually know how to find it, thanks to the Gull-Stravaganza.

We packed up the car with David's scope, tripod, two cameras, binoculars and liquid refreshments. I'm thinking there's gotta be an easier way. Jack navigated and we started at Lee Kay. We saw lots of gulls, most were too far away to identify anything other than the Californias. There were Canada geese, a handful of Crested Cormorants, many many pairs of Mallards and a big flock of male Red-Winged Blackbirds.

Most of the Canadas were up on the islands hiding in the grass, but their heads were sticking up like little periscopes. Fun!

The Mallards were all paired up on the islands as well. With the binoculars I could see they were surrounded in feathers and wonder if they were already starting to build nests. 

Since there wasn't much to see, we moved on to Decker Lake. It was cold, gray and windy today. Jack elected to stay in the car where he could be warm. I ventured out, but not for very long. The lake had coots, some common geese and hundreds of Northern Shovelers. When you see how long and broad the bills are, it is easy to understand why they are called shovelers. The males were in breeding plumage, pretty spectacular. 

In the middle of this huge flock of Northern Shovelers was one male Redhead and several females. 

Last Saturday, in our own backyard we had a pair of hawks. I am pretty sure these are Sharp-shinned Hawks. He is perched in our sycamore tree overlooking the bird feeder.