Birds. Yep.
Dec. 17th, 2020 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julian posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureA couple days ago, I went to hang out on a rock down near my local pond, and this mute swan family (two adults, two juveniles) turned right around and came swanning toward me expectantly.
Someone feeds them, clearly, and possibly *from that spot*, even. I felt bad, because I had nothin' to give them, but I took advantage of the opportunity to take some ridiculous close-ups. (I mostly don't take pictures of swans lately, because they're elegant, they're white, and they're going to keep being elegant and white, but these guys were *right there*.)
Mom (or dad) had been eating underwater.
Nice light on the side of one of the juveniles.
A juvenile rear end.
Blindingly white adult side.
Also, I have met a yellow-shafted flicker, common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and what I think are ring necked ducks, in addition to mallards, down there. This one, however, has me stumped. Is it a grebe? The beak seems too long. (Found him after the swans.)
ETA: Probably either a female or non-breeding male ruddy duck.
As for another batch of birds, today, I was out admiring the foot or so of snow we got this morning, and there were *starlings* on our *vines*. (We're on a corner; we have the house, the the driveway/parking lot, then there's the vines down by the side road.) That's usually the sparrow territory, and I'm biased against starlings. Hmph. But given how snowy it was, I guess I can't really blame 'em. (And it may be their turf in the morning, for all I know, I tend to take my walks later.)
They were also hanging at my neighbors' feeder. (I would have thought the younglings would have stopped begging by now, but I guess not.)
By this afternoon, the sparrows were back in their proper place, being perched blorps, though not, today, making a racket. I would assume the snow has them a bit down.
These two are distracted by something not me, for once.
Someone feeds them, clearly, and possibly *from that spot*, even. I felt bad, because I had nothin' to give them, but I took advantage of the opportunity to take some ridiculous close-ups. (I mostly don't take pictures of swans lately, because they're elegant, they're white, and they're going to keep being elegant and white, but these guys were *right there*.)
Mom (or dad) had been eating underwater.
Nice light on the side of one of the juveniles.
A juvenile rear end.
Blindingly white adult side.
Also, I have met a yellow-shafted flicker, common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and what I think are ring necked ducks, in addition to mallards, down there. This one, however, has me stumped. Is it a grebe? The beak seems too long. (Found him after the swans.)
ETA: Probably either a female or non-breeding male ruddy duck.
As for another batch of birds, today, I was out admiring the foot or so of snow we got this morning, and there were *starlings* on our *vines*. (We're on a corner; we have the house, the the driveway/parking lot, then there's the vines down by the side road.) That's usually the sparrow territory, and I'm biased against starlings. Hmph. But given how snowy it was, I guess I can't really blame 'em. (And it may be their turf in the morning, for all I know, I tend to take my walks later.)
They were also hanging at my neighbors' feeder. (I would have thought the younglings would have stopped begging by now, but I guess not.)
By this afternoon, the sparrows were back in their proper place, being perched blorps, though not, today, making a racket. I would assume the snow has them a bit down.
These two are distracted by something not me, for once.
