Unlike many birders, I don’t have a “lifetime list” of birds, though it’s hard not to maintain one inside your head when local guides list a bird as “common” and you haven’t seen one in two years of taking photographs and walking birding areas. So perhaps it’s not to be unexpected that my heart skipped a little beat when I looked out across a wide field to try to identify this duck who insisted, for the most part, in submerging his head as he foraged. It turned out to be a pair of Cinnamon Teal, and I’m pretty sure I would have recognized the male if I’d ever seen one before as it has a very distinctive body color.
It’s nice to be able to experience that little rush of feeling at something new, particularly when it doesn’t come in a UPS truck.
Still, I’m even happier knowing I still get a rush when I see something as as beautiful as Shelley’s favorite duck even if I already have a dozen good pictures of it.
Heck, I’m equally happy that Mallards still strike me as quite beautiful when found in their natural setting rather than in local parks where bread-throwing visitors have managed to turn them into beggars rather than wild birds.
Love them, but the middle pic is GREAT!!
Love those ducks. A birder friend of mine was just mentioning tonight that she’d recently spotted some cinnamon teals, too. I’d like to see some in the wild myself.
Lots of nice photos lately, birds and otherwise! Their clarity seems to improve my day a little every time!
That’s a nice habitat shot of the wood duck, but I like the mallard photo best.
I know that feeling, Loren and share it entirely. My eternal buzz is just watching them taking off & landing on a lake or pond, and working with the camera to capture it, over & over.