A male Bufflehead. Note the spirit-trapping iridescence that enshrouds his massive head.
A male Greater Scaup. The brown on his flanks points to the fact that he's not that old. I like the large water droplet suspended mid-air.
Here's an older bird for comparison. Check out the round dome....one of the ways to tell Lesser and Greater apart.
A male Lesser Scaup ponders his existence. It must be descaupinizing, being the lesser of two scaups.
Urban birding. What to say about it? Some places, that's all we can really do while staying close to home. Some places have incredible potential, and support large numbers of birds certain times of the year (i.e. New York's Central Park, Orange County's Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve), but some, not so much. Which, at least for me, is pretty depressing, considering what used to lie under all that pavement.
In the bay area we are lucky to have Lake Merritt in Oakland, where waterfowl are not persecuted for being tasty and therefore don't really mind people more than people mind people. Cassowary, Lizard, The Grebe and I also came across a male Tufted Duck and a Red-necked Grebe while we were there for a couple hours last week....I definitely recommend checking it out if you're around in the winter.
A lot of people diss Canada Geese, but I don't mind them. You can poo in my parks any day, Canada Geese.
Just thought I would spice things up with a flycatcher. Hello Black Phoebe.
Cool shots, though I prefer to call them knuckleheads.
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