Who We Are

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

The Birdies

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Ready to take a look at the birdies we saw down at Quivira NWR?  We saw an amazing number of different birds, so let's dive right in!

Almost as soon as we entered the refuge, we saw this tiny falcon perched in a tree:

AmericanKestrel2037db
American Kestrel

They are small (about the size of a dove) but mighty!

We saw lots of hawks - mostly Red-Tailed as we drove down the highways - but also several of these hawks, hunting in the refuge:

IMG_2171NorthernHarrier
Northern Harrier

It was a real duck-a-palooza day! We made a positive ID on ten different species of ducks!  We saw Mom's very favorite:

IMG_2236NorthernShovelers
❤❤❤  THE Northern Shoveler!!!  ❤❤❤

Mom added the hearts.  And the exclamation points.  Sigh.

I thought these tiny guys were mighty cute:

IMG_2299RuddyDuck
Ruddy Duck

As are these even smaller ones:

IMG_2341Bufflehead
Bufflehead

We also saw some Scaups:

IMG_2346LesserScaup
Female Lesser Scaup

We saw males, too, but not as close up!

In the pond we showed you yesterday, there were lots of different ducks!  Here's one look:

IMG_2363CanvasBackBuffleheadsAndRuddyDucks
Canvas-Back Duck (with reddish head), Buffleheads, and Ruddy Ducks

The Ruddy Duck on the far right is going into breeding plumage - can you see his rust-colored body and the bright blue bill?  Mom really likes Ruddies.  Not as much as her Northern Shovelers, but they're right up there!

One big surprise was seeing these graceful birdies!

IMG_2257TrumpeterSwansAndFriends
Trumpeter Swans and lots of ducks

We also saw lots of Cormorants:

IMG_2390DoubleCrestedCormorants
Double-Crested Cormorants

On the Cormorant on the right, do you see his double crests sticking up?  That's their version of breeding plumage!  It's not always easy to see the crests, so Mom was pretty excited to get this shot!

At one point in the trip, Mom remarked that we hadn't seen any herons yet.  A minute later, they spotted FIVE of them, hanging out together in the marsh!

IMG_2430GreatBlueHeron
Great Blue Heron

Mom being Mom, she tried saying that about other birdies, too, but that didn't quite pan out so well! It was worth a try, though!

That's it for this trip.  I'm ready to stretch my legs, get some water, then head home; how about you?

IMG_9869CamMagsHRV
"Maybe some crackers, too..."
"That was a LOT of birdies!!!"

If you would like to see the rest of our photos from this most recent trip, please click here to view our FlickR album.

Cammie!

9 comments:

  1. You found lots of beautiful birdies and waterfowl! Dad had Trumpeters. They are huge swans to stand next to!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whoa look at all those birdies and your found the Kansas Ocean too.
    Hugs madi your bfff

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those are all great pictures. Our mom likes the buffleheads when you see them in person because their dark parts of the head are iridescent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my!! What a wonderful selection of birdies you all found!!
    xoxo,
    Jakey, Arty & Rosy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great bird shots. What a great visit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We luff how you girls get to go on the trips too! And those birdies are pretty but why in the world do they have such odd names??

    ReplyDelete
  7. so many different ducks and we love the swans!
    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow what a duck bonanza you had, beautiful shots of the birdies, as always. So pleased you had such a great day.

    Wooos
    Khumbu

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's a lot of ducks! What's so pawesome about the Northern Shoveler that it's your momma's favorite?

    ReplyDelete