Black, Green, and Gold: American Black Ducks in the Summer Sun

After a morning watching Eiders at our beach, these ducks were initially confusing - but lovely!

They may not be flashy or exotic, but the American Black duck is far from dull.

When you hit it right, the water in the marsh is like glass.  If it weren't for the deer flies and ticks, it would be heavenly!

When they spied us, they both turned and headed deeper into the marsh.  It looked like they were entering Never-Never Land!

Even watching them fly away was a pleasure!

The deadly side effects of fishing

I hope this isn't the tragedy I first thought it was, but check out the fishing line wrapped around the duck's bill!


One can only hope the line is not wrapped around so tightly that it cannot eat. Even if the bird can eat, though, it would still seem likely that the duck is in danger. Can it fly with a nylon line dragging behind? A million things could go wrong!


Less than 30 minutes later, we saw another bird tangled up in fishing line. This was a gull, and if anything the fishing line was more entrenched than the one on the duck had been.


It is hard to see, but if you look closely you can tell that it is protruding from the bird's nostril and that there is about a foot of tangled line curled behind him.


My son tells me that fishing line is made to dissolve these days precisely because this happens to birds and animals so often. I just hope the fishing line dissolves quickly enough to save the lives of these birds!