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Bird Watchers

I pretty angry looking Grackle, a European Starling with a bum leg, a puffed up Redwing Blackbird and a pretty calm Black-Capped Chickadee also showed up. We had a large concentration of European Starlings, Redwing Blackbirds and Brown Headed Cowbirds - hundreds of them all over the yard and at the feeders - along with at least 50 or so House Sparrows, a few House Finches, Northern Cardinals, Downey Woodpeckers and American Goldfinches. The snow really seemed to be bringing them out in huge numbers.

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Now all of that was a great run of photos and I sure enjoyed the break. This is getting to be like Nat. Geo.
 
My wife is the best bird spotter I know - and is absolutely as clueless as me as to what the bird is... Today we were taking our daily walk when out of the clear blue she said, "what is that tiny bird in the middle of the lake?" "That's a Mallard Duck, dear..." "No - not the duck, the bird that's swimming in front of them" I'm very glad I had my camera with the telephoto on it as I tried the best I could to get a photo from a distance. I could see it had some sort of brownish-orange marking around it's head, and it did not look like any other duck I'd ever seen. Bottom line - after I got back and cropped the photo there was something I did not even know existed - a "Horned Grebe". Thought I'd share as I am understanding they are not exactly plentiful!
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ggiese said:
My wife is the best bird spotter I know - and is absolutely as clueless as me as to what the bird is... Today we were taking our daily walk when out of the clear blue she said, "what is that tiny bird in the middle of the lake?" "That's a Mallard Duck, dear..." "No - not the duck, the bird that's swimming in front of them" I'm very glad I had my camera with the telephoto on it as I tried the best I could to get a photo from a distance. I could see it had some sort of brownish-orange marking around it's head, and it did not look like any other duck I'd ever seen. Bottom line - after I got back and cropped the photo there was something I did not even know existed - a "Horned Grebe". Thought I'd share as I am understanding they are not exactly plentiful!
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Reminds me of a wood duck.
 
Pugman1943 said:
@ggiese , how the heck did you find that info out? eye good on your wife's part. So I looked it up and will attach a little extra info. Also, considered vunerable in population. Love the photos brother.

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Having never seen one, my curiosity was piqued. It turns out the Grebe is actually not a duck (it does not have webbed feet) and are actually a distant cousin of the flamingo. The "matted plug" of their feathers in their stomach aids them in eating fish whole (so they can fully digest it). Their breeding grounds are in northern Canada and Alaska, but they travel south during the colder months. I'm assuming we saw him because of his migratory trek from south to north. I'm told he is in breeding plumage (he is pretty much black and white when not in that plumage). You are also tracking with what I saw - they are "vulnerable" having lost nearly 80% of their population in North America the last 30 years. Interesting bird for sure - and glad we saw him! I just wish I would have been within a shorter distance to capture a clearer picture!
 
During our walk earlier this week we came across this bird. I was confused so I took a few pictures because I had never seen one before. Turns out it’s an Eastern Phoebe flycatcher. Probably have seen it a million times before but just ignored it.

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