Just some thoughts on the time of the year...

Anybody who has been birding for any period of time knows that the natural world acts in cycles. This means at different times of the year, you can almost count on seeing certain bird species. I definitely associate different times of the year with different families. For example, here in New England, spring brings us wonderful warblers, late summer brings us shorebirds, early fall brings a variety of sparrows, and throughout the winter we get a variety of interesting gulls and owls. But this time of the year - that is late autumn/early winter, I often associate with ducks. We are blessed with having a lot of ducks in our area at this time of year, and the over the last few weekends since returning from Texas (where there was no shortage of ducks either) we've been checking some of out expected annual species...
If you go back to my last two Bird Photography Weekly Posts, you'll see that I've had quite a bit of exposure to the two eiders that we get to see in New England. Staying with the sea ducks, New England is also a great place to see all three species of scoters - Black, White-winged and Surf. Unfortunately, a post-worthy photo of any of these species has eluded me. Another beautiful duck that has eluded my is the Long-tailed Duck (formerly called the Oldsquaw, but renamed because it was deemed politically incorrect) On the other hand, I've finally had a bit of luck with one of my favorites... Harlequin Ducks.

Each year, I make an effort to visit the Alewife Reservoir in Cambridge to see the Canvasback ducks that arrive each fall.
While there, one is also treated to good looks at Ruddy Ducks, as well as another of my favorites, the Ring-necked Duck - which I posit (and many many others have agreed) is a horribly mis-named bird. Seems like the obvious name would have been the Ring-billed Duck, right? So where did the name come from? Way back 'in the day' when birds were being given their common names - the birds were identified in the hand, (after being sighted down the barrel of a gun instead of a lens). And when this particular duck was held in the hand, a cinnamon colored neck ring was seen. Unfortunately, this particular field mark is difficult to see in the field, but every now and again, in good light, you can pick-up a hint of that cinnamon color:Other ducks that we've seen in the last two weeks include: Northern Pintails, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, Northern Shovellers, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Greater Scaup, Common, Red-breasted and Hooded Mergansers, Black Ducks and of course, Mallards.

I don't expect the duck show to stop soon, and hope to post more pics of ducks as I get them.
(In fact, the Tufted Duck that had been seen for the last two years at the Turner Reservoir in RI is back again. Our friends Mark and Sheila saw it today, and might be posting about it on Sheila's blog soon, so keep an eye out for that. You can also visit Kim's blog to see some of the ducks she spotted today in Gloucester, MA)