Interesting Guests

We"re in the Central Flyway here and one of the migratory routes
from Canada and points North to the Gulf Coast.

For the past I don"t know how many years about all that I could
collect was the Lesser Scaup. Drakes had a brown head, some
brown on him otherwise and a white breast.

I gave up hunting 35 years ago when I moved out of urbania.
Was more fun to watch wildlife than harvest it.

Collecting fish stealing Great Blue Herons is a year round event,
usually one visits, but this winter I have 3. Wasting their time as
the fish are deep this time of year, but at least one will remain.

As of a couple of weeks ago a lone Merganzer visited and
decided to stay. Usually I have a little guy, don"t know what it is,
not a Merganzer, but a smaller fish eater with a curved beak. He
didn"t visit this year.

This year no Scaups visited. Instead I was beset with almost a
dozen Gadwalls that set up shop back in the November time
frame and are still here. They like my Coontail Moss.

But today, I am out and about and lo and behold I see a couple of
white chin straps out with the Gadwalls. This is a first time
event for me. Looks like a drake and hen. Funny they are eating
the same thing the Gadwalls are and aren"t harassing them like
geese like to do.

Since the temp will freeze tonight and tomorrow night and the
current wind is 20-30 mph, I guess they decided to interrupt
their return trip for a day or two and wait for more favorable
conditions.

They made my day.

Mark

Pictures?

Well sir it is cold, I am snuggled in the house, the closest I could get to them would be about 200 yards and the pictures would be useless. I don't have a telephoto lense on my camera and I'm not too good at taking pics anyway.

Trust me it's a beautiful sight.

MarK

I'm sorry I asked. I'll not do that again.

Not a problem. If they are there tomorrow, I'll see what I can do. But still, I'll have to sneak up on them to get a decent picture and having hunted geese in my early years, that is not an easy task. Grin.

Mark

I just took these this morning. Red-Breasted Merganser and a Great Blue Heron.
I've been haunting our nearby wildlife refuge every other day or so looking for good photo opportunities. The herons and more ducks just started showing up.

My (lone) Merganzer is solid black with the wings midway between the beak and tip of the tail feathers. the beak is long with a peak on the end like that of a bird of prey....ha he is a bird of prey; he eats fish.

Nice pictures. You must have a super telephoto lense because I know full well they wouldn't let you get that close to them with normal lenses.

Not sure about any wild birds being here tomorrow nor my cattle. Have a new neighbor with a Cessna 150 looks like, that likes to take a little evening ride. I know where he lives/parks his aircraft and I know the plane. I was out weed killing a couple of weeks ago and he came by me twice both times at low (200' guess) altitudes.

Tonight, was eating supper and the house got buzzed, close enough to rattle the windows.

Might just go down and have a word with this new neighbor with pockets full of money and explain a couple of things about courtesy, neighbor relationships, and aviation law. Judging from all the money he is showing off since he moved in, he probably doesn't give a flip about his neighbors.

Mark

Yea, yours is probably a Common Merganser. He lacks the red breast, and in good light his head is a dark metallic green.
It"s hard getting pics of birds, but persistence is the key. Every so often you can find one that is rather tame, and won"t fly away right off. Cars actually make a good blind. Lots of critters are less afraid of a vehicle than someone on foot. Both of those were taken from my car. And yes, a long telephoto is a must.

i'd like to see them put a bounty on the herons around here,...maybe find a bullfrog without them

I would object to them, but I have an abundance of perch. Since the drought of several years ago killed off all the predators (fish not birds) the perch have exploded. I stocked some catfish to eat since they now have a fighting chance and I can't catch them for all the perch.

But I got a solution. When I feed in the warmer months this year, next time I get a good school of them going, catfish and perch, I am going to whip out my new 6' cast net and get me some cats.

Heard a story, may have been on here from one of our Louisiana contributors, where a guy in the fish business put 5000 fingerlings in a production pool to gain some weight.

Said he came back a time later to harvest his fish and he essentially had none; but he had the herons. Seems once they know where there is a meal, they stay with it till they get them all.

While you're at bounties, sure would like to see buzzards included, especially the black buzzard. When my fish died off during the drought, I counted 51 on one occasion.

So here you have a cow down or with a fresh calf and gang of these things descend upon her. She, nor the calf have a chance. BTDT.

So much for the handy work of our all knowing and serving ??????? politicians, not statesman, politicians.

Mark

Well I got out first thing this morning......well first thing for a retired guy, snicker.

I got as close as I could and the third pic is the ducks leaving the premises.

Pic 1 is the ducks and on the bank sorta in the center is a Heron.
Pic 2 is one of the Herons out in the pasture. This one is tangled up with the 3rd one in some kind of mating courtship. He/She flew up when I approached.
Pic 3, as stated is an attempt to catch the ducks departing.

No geese and no merganzer.

Again I got as close as I could and don't have a telephoto. But I said I would try and here they are.

Mark