Handsome male redheadCopyright 2009 Lydia Hinshaw
TIERRA VERDE, FL -- Our inauguration invitations got lost in the mail, so Prince Charming and I consoled ourselves with a trip to the West Coast for a bird shoot.
We saw all of the usual suspects, plus some bonus birds -- a newly-hatched great blue heron with its parent, a pair of bald eagles (too far away for decent photographs) and a number of redheads like the one above.
Later, I was surprised to read in my National Audubon Society Field Guide that the redhead is one of the least common North American ducks, due to hunting and habitat destruction.
There were at least a dozen males and quite a few of their girlfriends in a small pond beside a busy four-lane road. These birds come to Florida for the winter. Summers, they head off to places like Alaska, British Columbia, California, and other points north and west. Except for the fact that they leave for the summer to raise families, they're a lot like us.
We saw all of the usual suspects, plus some bonus birds -- a newly-hatched great blue heron with its parent, a pair of bald eagles (too far away for decent photographs) and a number of redheads like the one above.
Later, I was surprised to read in my National Audubon Society Field Guide that the redhead is one of the least common North American ducks, due to hunting and habitat destruction.
There were at least a dozen males and quite a few of their girlfriends in a small pond beside a busy four-lane road. These birds come to Florida for the winter. Summers, they head off to places like Alaska, British Columbia, California, and other points north and west. Except for the fact that they leave for the summer to raise families, they're a lot like us.
No comments:
Post a Comment