goldeneye with ducklings

[turlough]

I usually only see Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) in our stream in late Winter/early Spring. This year one of the pairs looks to have nested here too because earlier this week I saw this mum with her three tiny babies.

Click to enlarge:

Comments

[satsuma]

those are some very adorable babies! thanks for sharing

[turlough]

They were so cute!

[emeraldarrows]

So cute! <333

[turlough]

Totally adorable!

[shirebound]

I'm enjoying your photos so much!

[turlough]

Thank you!

[cmcmck]

Such cuties! :o)

[turlough]

They're totally adorable!

[dhampyresa]

ROUND

[turlough]

Very round and fluffy!

[adafrog]

Cute.

[turlough]

Far too cute :-)

[pauraque]

Oh, precious little fluffballs! I've never seen goldeneye babies before as we're not in their breeding range, so they're a winter bird for us. Here we call them Common Goldeneye to distinguish them from Barrow's Goldeneye.

[turlough]

They were so cute paddling along! I looked up Barrow's Goldeneye, they look almost exactly the same as ours. It must be really difficult to distinguish between them in the wild.

[pauraque]

Yeah, definitely. Male Barrow's have a teardrop-shaped white spot by their eye instead of round, but the females look nearly identical.

[scintilla10]

Gosh, they're adorable little fuzzballs!

[turlough]

Far too cute!!

[yourlibrarian]

Don't know how I missed this post earlier -- so adorable!

[turlough]

I saw what I think was the mum earlier this week but without any ducklings. I really hope it was just another female and that this adorable little trio is still safe!

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah we see the same happening all the time with the mallard babies ☹️ I remind myself that hawks and foxes have babies to feed too though.

[turlough]

I hadn't thought of it like that but yeah, that's very true.