Pilot Study

Ruddy Duck sleeping

I did a pilot study to see which ducks were still present at the pond. Not much, to be honest. I saw Green-winged Teal, Ruddy Ducks, COOTS (which don't really count as waterfowl, but they were definately there!), Buffleheads, Mallards, and Northern Shovelers. But these birds were not in very high numbers, besides the Green-winged Teals dabbling and the ruddy ducks and bufflhead ducks diving. So I decided I wanted to do a project on the difference of foragining times between dabbling and diving ducks. My representative for the diving ducks would be the Bufflehead and my representative for the dabbling duck would be the Green-winged Teal! We'll see how swell it goes. Until then, here's two pictures taking while wandering around the marsh: the Ruddy Duck loungin' and the Bufflhead strollin'.

Female Bufflehead