Wednesday, February 25, 2015

By the Water

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I had to go to the North Cypress Medical Center on Huffmeister the other day. As usual, there were plenty of ducks and geese on the ponds. Most of them were not wild birds but I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures of them.

I was impressed by how well these ones swam in line.



This one caught my attention because it seemed to really enjoying splashing about, much to the discomfort of other ducks nearby. 



The previous week I had felt bad for the solitary Black-bellied Whistling Duck who had been left behind when the rest of the flock moved on. So this time I was pleased to see that it was no longer alone.


Back at work, the ditch along the north side of the CyFair campus has finally starting hosting a few birds again.

These White Ibis were new additions to my 2015 Harris County list.



I see plenty of Mallards but I thought these two females were just too photogenic to ignore. As it turns out, I was right not to ignore them because they were actually a pair of Mottled Ducks.


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3 comments:

Barbara In Caneyhead said...

Nice photos of the ducks.
We have a couple of wild ducks that stop at our pond every year on their way through.
Life & Faith in Caneyhead

Birdchaser said...

I believe the photogenic mallards are actually Mottled Ducks. And a very nice photo of them too.

Jeff said...

I hovered between Mallard and Mottled for a while. Theor color was quite light but I thought that was because of the sun. Now that you've raised the issue,I think I see a black area on the female's gape, which would make them Mottled. Thanks for the prompt!