Green-winged Teals

Belted Kingfisher

Mike and Chris are having a contest to see who will get the best picture of the Kingfisher. They spotted the Kingfisher from different rooms at the same time but Chris was closer to the camera.  This is the best photo, which isn't bad considering it was a grey day and he only stayed for 30 seconds, but Mike hopes to surpass her someday.  Stay tuned, friends.

Green-winged Teal & Canada Goose

Another very exciting morning! We started looking early hoping to see the Wood Ducks again. One was here yesterday but barely for a minute. At first Chris didn't see anything other than geese, but did a quick scan over the lake with the binoculars in case. Well, good thing! Of course the "new duck" alert went into effect. There were two male Green-winged Teals hanging around for about a half hour. Isn't he just adorably small in comparison to the goose! It was sort of a gray morning, and we didn't find these little guys to be very photogenic, but this we thought was good enough to post.

Male Hairy Woodpecker at Suet Feeder

We are starting to select different settings on the camera to see what we get. This looks a lot clearer than a previous post of a Hairy at the suet feeder (at least in our opinion.)

Common Mergansers: Two Girls For Every Boy

They spent a pleasant afternoon sunning themselves without much diving.

Wood Ducks

This pair caused quite a stir at our house very early this morning. We were having our coffee in the upstairs bedroom windows as usual, which offer the best view of a large portion of the lake. At first glance with the naked eye, Chris thought the Hooded Merganser couple was back. Fortunately she was quick to grab the binoculars and discover it was a male and female Wood Duck pair. She dashed for the camera, of course all the while exclaiming to Mike how she could not contain her excitement. It's a good thing she moved fast, because they only stayed for about 20 minutes. We had seen a pair of these one day early last November also early one morning, and we hadn't seen any again until this morning. Chris sat out on the dock late this afternoon for an hour and a half hoping they would come by again so we'd have a clearer picture to put up, but they just didn't come by. The early mornings and late afternoons seem to be the best times for the less common types of ducks we see, so we'll surely be up early again tomorrow hoping for a repeat performance. The lovely female Common Merganser was here early in the morning too, and she was just demanding to be photographed again. I do love the way she is looking at him.

A Pair of Wood Ducks

Female Common Merganser

She looks so pretty and so proud, doesn't she! And her hair is not blowing in the wind like in another female Common Merganser that we posted.

Tufted Titmouse

It's a nice bright sunny day today, so we got some clearer pictures. This is our first posting of the Tufted Titmouse. They move so fast it's hard to get them. The others have been up before, the Northern Cardinal and the Nuthatch.

Northern Cardinal

White-breasted Nuthatch

A Female Downy Woodpecker