Earlier this week, I made two visits to view the bird life along the South Platte River. At this time of year there are many migratory ducks that spend the winter months in the river. On common visitor is the Northern Shoveler that has a distinctive black bill. In this image, I managed to capture two males near the shoreline.
Male Shovelers are distinguished by the white breasts. In contrast, the female is a brown bird that blends with grasses during breeding seasons. The female looks very similar to a Mallard, but that big bill sets them apart.
Driving back home, I noticed the unmistakable shape of a Great Blue Heron in the river. I pulled off into a parking lot and made several images of the heron as it was basking in the last rays for sunlight for the day.
A couple of days later, I headed to another location during a day off work. At this location, we observed many birds during the summer. Soon after arriving, the call of a Kildeer could be herd. I headed towards the water’s edge where I managed to capture one of my first images of a Kildeer as it was foraging along the shoreline.
Across the far side were three Golden Eye ducks; two males and one female. Periodically they dived below the water surface to feed.
There were several Buffelhead ducks working the same stretch of river. They too dived periodically to feed from the river bottom. In this image, a male duck rose to the surface close to where I was located; he soon swam off to a safer more “social” distance. Or should that be more a more anti-social distance?
Several dozen Hooded-Mergansers were also paddling in this location. The male bird is particularly striking with that white hood. Several females were also in the river, but too far away to make reasonable sized images.
Soon, I noticed ripples in the water as a Gadwall made it’s way upstream towards my location.
In this final image, a pair of male and female Golden Eye ducks allowed me to approach closer.
The female Golden Eye is often very difficult to see, because they are very well camouflaged, even when swimming in the water!