Winter Woods Birds

Even the Sudbury River near Carmel Terrace was frozen on Saturday! We did manage to get some pretty active Downy woodpecker action in the woods on the steep river bank, though.


Not quite sure why he's going into the black hole. (Black hole! Pretty funny, huh?)


You don't see them like this everyday! He's flying straight up from one branch to another!


He is peeking at something through the branches. I love the black and white eye ring - it gives him such a sweet looking expression.


Tom managed to capture this White-breasted Nuthatch. He also snapped a shot of a Red-breasted Nuthatch, but it was too blurry to post. I never even saw the guy!

Last duck show for the year?

Yesterday all my favorite sites were frozen over and barren of bird life. I hope the rain brings everything back to normal. but just in case here's another look at last weeks duck species bonanza. This is the perfect Northern Pintail.


Male and Female Hooded Mergansers - don't you love 'em?


Male American Wigeon in first winter plumage.


Mallard mates.


Last weekend's winter wonderland of ducks and geese; now a frozen wasteland.

Pintails, Wigeons, and Mergansers

Two of my favorite ducks together in one shot. The elegant and gorgeous Northern Pintail, and the always adorable female Hooded Merganser.


I saw my first Pintail this year, but the pictures I took then were deplorable. But isn't he a stunning fellow in this shot?


How can anyone not love a hoodie? Female Hooded Mergansers always make me smile. They are amusing and adorable, and I can't help thinking of the 'I Love Lucy' show whenever I see one.


I saw my first wigeon about a month ago, and I'm thrilled to finally get a few half decent shots of this species. An adult male and an adult female are in ront, a first winter male in the back.



The green crescent sported by male wigeons remind me of a tonsured monk for some reason.

A brand new bird species in Massachusetts!

I thought, at first, that I had finally caught sight of one of the rare geese in the area. This bird wasn't in any of my field guides, though, so I knew it was either a strangely mutated Canada Goose (which seemed unlikely considering the shape and size of the bill, which looked like a whole different species of goose), or a Canada Goose hybrid. It turns out to be a hybrid of a Canada Goose and some other goose.


The pictures are horrible, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say it looks very much like the head of a Snow Goose attached to a Canada Goose's body. A little bit disturbing, actually! I found out that geese do hybridize quite a bit, and I even found a picture of one like this one: Bill Schmoker's possible Canada x Snow Goose


Jim Berry, from the massbird email list, said that "the size of this goose (same as the Canadas) implies that it's a hybrid with a white domestic goose". He could very well be right.


The black bill and small head has me thinking Snow Goose X Canada Goose hybrid still, but you know me - I always go straight for the exotic if at all possible!