I went to Carrie Blake Park recently to see what kinds of ducks I might find there. A previous visit yielded only mallards. This time I was pleased to find wigeons – lots of them. Most of them were American Wigeons. These are the ones with the greenish heads (males) and brown and grey mottling (females). But there were a few Eurasian Wigeons mingling with the group. You can see a male with the ginger colored head.
According to my bird book, “More Eurasian Wigeons overwinter in Washington than anywhere else in the other lower 48 states.” And apparently they tend to hang out with other Wigeons.
There generally are lots of ducks at Carrie Blake Park this time of year. Wigeons make a sort of whistling sound. The air was full of whistles at the park.
Let the migration begin.
Your delightful photos reinforce that “birds of a feather flock together.” My family were hunters (always ate or shared what they killed) but I could never understand how they could bag these beautiful birds or kill a deer. It seemed like such a contradiction because all of my family, both close and distant, were animal lovers and kind rescuers of all kinds of animals. People are such contradictions, aren’t they? Enjoy seeing the variety in your top photo.
They are quite attractive ducks. I don’t think we see them here in Florida, though. We stuck with the old time pigeons, not wigeons!
There are quite a lot of them, but that’s particularly to be expected this time of year.
Love the duck photos – those are some of my favorite ducks.