I’m amazed when an experienced birder identifies a bird from it’s song, at least when it’s a sound I don’t recognize. After all, even I recognize the sound of a bluejay, an eagle, or a widgeon and a few others, but most bird calls are indistinguishable to me. I’m even more amazed when birders can identify a bird by their relative size and their flight pattern.
However, after several years of photographing ducks and other water birds, I’m beginning to be able to tell which bird it is simply by how they dive, as grebes and certain species of ducks have distinctive ways of diving when spooked. My favorite disappearing act is the Pied Grebe who literally just sinks into the water, but unfortunately I haven’t seen any Pied Grebes lately, certainly not yesterday which I spent at the ocean and northern Puget Sound shooting these shots, though they’re not the shot I was trying to take.
More often than not, this is all you’ll see of this sea duck if it sees you first, and it usually does,
resulting in this kind of shot of a Bufflehead.
This bird is larger than a Bufflehead, but perhaps equally shy.
You might recognize it as Red-Breasted Merganser, another bird I’ve been trying to get a good shot of lately.
This species virtually disappears into the water with little or no splash. You probably recognize it from yesterday’s post.
Once you have really watch a Horned Grebe’s dive
you’ll never confuse it with any other sea-bird. Like me, though, you may wonder how it is able to launch itself into the air and straight down. (Might be time to haul out the tripod and set my Canon to movie mode, to really see if I can figure it out in slow motion.)
If you recognize this bird by its dive, you’re a better birder than me.
I didn’t even recognize it as a Pigeon Guillemot in its non-breeding colors, but that’s a story for another day’s post.
Thought you might like to see how many “missed” shots I get. However, a digital camera lets you can shoot numerous shots without cost, except for the time it takes to sort them and discover how few of the day’s shots are actually worth keeping.