I got this trio of ruddy ducks in the town of Wilcox Arizona next to where the sandhill cranes like to hang out. These guys actually had their nice blue beaks for the breeding season.Here are a few waterfowl I spotted in Arizona last month for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100
Later on in Patagonia Arizona I saw another ruddy duck. This guy didn't seem to have a nice blue bill yet.
This one did have a bit of blue on his bill but the sun highlight blasted the color out of the picture.
I also spotted a pie billed grebe on this lake. These are really tiny little water birds and they are usually shy diving down for a long time underwater then reemerging far away from you.
There was a bridge by the lake that let me get some overhead shots of the grebe.
A coot also swam by while I was on the bridge. Their call is pretty hilarious, I can see where the saying you "old coot" comes from when you hear someone complaining about something lol.
I also saw quite a few northern shovelers at the lake in Wilcox.
They are a bit of a larger duck and you can always easily identify they because of their oversized bill.
Shovelers are interesting to observe when they are feeding. They swirl around in a circle stirring up the water and filtering it with their large bills. They use comb-like structures in their bills to filter out small crustaceans (brine shrimp in this case) and aquatic insects, their whirlpool swimming motion helps stir them up from the bottom of the lake.
That's all for now, happy #featheredfriday :-)
Incredibly beautiful photos above the clouds
Thanks :-)
Happy #featheredfriday Nice capture of the blue bills on the ruddy ducks. Cool action shots of the shoveling and overhead shots of swimming ducks. I'm always fascinated to watch ducks swim from overhead where you can see their feet churning away. We visited waterfowl preserves in the Sacramento river delta a few times when we were in California. Same mix of birds. The sandhill cranes migrate through. The coots just hang around 🙄 California's central valley is on the great Pacific flyway so lots of waterfowl come through.
I have some underwater footage somwhere of ducks swimming in torch lake in Michigan, pretty hilarious looking. I'll have to look up that sacramento river spot for birding. The mountains are also good for birding
Here's a still from the underwater duck feet.
Awesome 🤣
Beautiful photos
Thanks for looking :-)
Beautiful shots of these beautiful birds.
It was good lighting out there.
very funny ducks!
And where is the desert? Where's the sand?
It's not quite the Sahara, more of a high altitude desert with grasslands, cacti and stickery trees. The lakes are far and few between in the valleys where all the birds hang out.
I understood.
Nice shots!
Thanks :-)
Nice selection of water birds. That blue bill is intriguing.
When they are in full breeding colors the bill is really bright blue. I'm still trying to get a good closeup of them at their brightest. I see them sometimes up here but still no opportunity to get a closeup shot yet.