A gorgeous blue spring sky illuminates acres of prairie grasses buffering highly productive prairie pothole wetlands at Battelle Darby Metro Park in central Ohio. I was fortunate to spend time with lots of ducks over the weekend, and some briefly captioned pictorial highlights follow.
For an enthusiast of fowl, such as myself, it doesn't get much better than this. A shallow marsh at Big Island Wildlife Area in Marion County teems with waterbirds of many species: Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, Horned Grebe, Bufflehead and others.
The Red-winged Blackbirds have recolonized Ohio, and chaps such as this were making themselves known from every other shrub, it seemed.
A line of Ring-necked Ducks rockets by: two drakes, accompanied by three hens.
A closer view of a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, female below, male above. The focus is on the hen.
Few birds beat the Northern Pintail for sleek elegance. This quintet sports a trio of drakes and a pair of hens.
A female American Wigeon leads a male. His huge white wing patches stand out even from great distances.
Plenty of Horned Grebes are also passing through, and many are in transition between basic (winter) and alternate (breeding) plumages, such as this bird. He'll look even snazzier in short order.
2 comments:
That sounds like the PERFECT way to spend a day--lucky you. You captured so many gorgeous shots. I always enjoy seeing them.
Nice shots Jim. You're starting to get the hang of it.
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