Friday’s Feathered Friends-Scaups

Posted in Birding in Nevada, Ducks, Friday's Feathered Friends, Fuji X-T3, PhotographyTagged , , , , , ,

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

When it was snowing last week my neighbor and I took our cameras for a walk and had a lovely couple of hours birding our own neighborhood.  We’ve been keeping 6 feet apart and she’s in my very small group of contacts that I am seeing as we get through this pandemic.

These are Lesser Scaups that migrate and winter here. There are currently several pairs staying in a couple of the ponds at the golf course that meander through our community.

They are in the dipping/diving duck family and are the most abundant diving duck in North America.

I have no idea how much longer they’re going to be here, but I’ve enjoyed seeing them here.

Lesser Scaup Male

This is a group of both males and females that got skittish as we got closer to their end of the pond.

Lesser Scaup Males in Flight

Going for walks when I can have been great for my mind and spirit. I hope you’re all finding ways to keep your spirits up during this self-distancing and quarantine time.

We’ll get through this! 🥰

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

more to come…

 

 

 

31 thoughts on “Friday’s Feathered Friends-Scaups”

  2. Never having heard of the word scaup, I turned to the American Heritage Dictionary for the origin of the word: “Short for scaup-duck, perhaps from Scots scalp, scaup, bed of mussels (from its feeding on shellfish).”

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  3. Spending time in nature also keeps my spirits up. Around here, it is exceptionally quiet except for the birds. I don’t know whether it is my imagination and Spring is here, although it feels like more birds are claiming their home in the trail close to our house. Beautiful photos, Deborah! Take care.

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  12. Great captures, Deborah. I love that hint of iridescent green on their cheek. The birds are all around and singing each morning about their delight of springtime. The bluebird and cardinals are my favorite. I guess I love showy birds. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much, Gordon! Truthfully, I had to look this one up to get the ID because I can never remember anything other than the Greater Scaup is larger, but their head shapes are a little different too. I can’t keep it straight who is who. I mix up Clark’s and Western Grebes too. I have to look them up because one has the black eyebrow coming over its eye and the other doesn’t. I’m not a birding dictionary on a lot of birds. I’ve just learned enough to know I need to look up which type it is on this bird. 😀

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