Seward CBC Count Week, Day 5: Green-winged Teal

Posted on: December 21, 2009 | Sporadic Bird | Comments Off | Print Article | Rate Post:

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December 21, 2009

Sunrise 10:01 am, sunset 3:50 pm, length of day 5 hours, 49 minutes; tomorrow will be 0 minutes and 8 seconds LONGER. Happy Winter Solstice!

Weather: 39º, blowing rain from the south on top of all that lovely snow. More of the same in the forecast.

Day Five of the Seward Count Week
Highlight today was a beautiful male GREEN-WINGED TEAL, our smallest dabbling duck, found hanging out with a bunch of tame mallards, other domestic ducks, and tame white-fronted geese at Clear Creek. Mallards are supposed to be dabblers too, but once again I observed some of the mallards actually diving underwater to reach a salmon carcass at the bottom. After a few dives, one of the mallards managed to bring it to the surface where he and two others pecked at it vigorously until it sank back down. Alas! No claws to hold it while dining.

Also spotted there, a BELTED KINGFISHER and a COMMON GOLDENEYE, but no Hooded Merganser today.

A DIPPER perched on the ice at the lagoon, then flung itself into the water and began paddling around like a duck with its tiny unwebbed feet. The remarkable songbird then dove repeatedly into the cold water, completely at home underwater or in the rain.

I had three species of chickadees at my sunflower seed feeder: BLACK-CAPPED, CHESTNUT-BACKED, AND BOREAL, plus the RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, and DARK-EYED JUNCOS.