And our prize: an American black duck. My ABA Area Bird #472.
No, it doesn't look much like Daffy - it's like a distinctly darker female mallard.
In addition, we added the following to our NC list:
Green-winged teal
Swamp sparrow
Fox sparrow
Killdeer
The killdeer situation was kind of crazy. Before, I'd only seen one or two killdeer at a time, but yesterday, a flock of about 30 killdeer kept flying and landing around where we were standing (on a strip between two ponds) looking at the ducks. Oh, and running around. I love watching sandpipers and plovers (e.g., killdeer) run. They look so silly - their legs move at a million miles and an hour, but because they're so short, they do not move nearly as far as all that action would suggest.
Here's a good video of a running killdeer with the added bonus of the mom's famous broken-wing display used to lure predators away from vulnerable babies. (However, killdeer babies are literally precocious - they can start running right after being born.)
1 comment:
That's great about the American Black Duck!! My only birding news is that we are finally seeing juncos and we have a male cardinal that has the brightest red feathers we've ever seen. He is so gorgeous!!
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