Ducks and Geese

On our trek through Sam Smith Park, we saw quite a few water birds. Aside from the usual Mallards and Canada Geese...


...we saw two pairs of Bufflehead actively diving for food by themselves in their own little bay...


...and we saw several pairs of Hooded Merganser in the same pond as the Mallards...





...off on its own was another merganser, which we think is probably either a Common or Red-breasted Merganser...




...and were able to ID a new bird (for us), the Northern Shoveler. This one was a female, which is a little less distinctive, and harder to identify, than the male.

Here's the Northern Shoveler next to a male Hooded Merganser, who in the second picture looks surprised for some reason:



We were struggling to ID the Shoveler, and along came a birding expert who took one look and made the ID in a second.



He, along with others, were searching for the Brant, a goose that breeds in the arctic but may make a quick stop while migrating through. Brant are considered "rare to locally common spring and fall migrants". No one saw them on the Sunday, although they said others saw three of them on Saturday. Dave saw these highly sought out birds the week before when he was out walking Arthur and Lola while I was off visiting friends. So Dave had one up on the experts, which made me feel a bit better about not being in the know about the Shoveler.