Appalachian Exposure: RECAP

Greetings birders and bloggers from all corners! I hope this post finds you, or you find this post rather, in good health, high spirits, and long plentiful checklists!

As for myself, I have REALLY let myself down this fall as far as birding. I haven't done any serious birding in months!!!

Last October, a ring-necked duck was being reported at a local water body here in state college, and reporting it as a rare. I had my girlfriend staying for a few days, and we had some time to kill, so I thought that we could go try and get some looks at this bird. As soon as we got there we were greeted with numerous mallards and a pair of canada geese, swimming quickly towards the bank, climbing up onto the grass, and coming within a couple of feet from us hoping for a free handout. I thought that this was a great opportunity to get some great mallard close ups.

Male and Female Mallards

Female close up

Male close up

After spending some time with the mallards, I remembered what we had come in search of, and started to scan the water surface and nooks and crannies in the shore line for the diver. All alone on the opposite side of the pond, hanging out in a snag, was the star of the show, a drake ring-necked duck.

Male ring-necked duck

It was starting to get late, and I had the feeling that my companion for the evening was getting bored, so we headed for GIANT to get things to cook dinner. I thought that it was a good "birding ice-breaker" for my girlfriend, maybe she won't mind coming with me more often...?

About a week after the search for the ring-necked duck, I was looking for a continuing group of green winged teal and a northern shoveler. After walking and searching for the water body that they had been reported on for about a half hour, I finally found it. I began walking down into the valley where the retaining pond was. Flushing several song sparrows and red-winged black birds from the thick thistle weeds and brush along the way.

Song Sparrow

As I got closer to the water, the red-winged blackbirds were NOT having it, and started aggressively calling and flying over.

A not-so-happy male red-winged blackbird

These RWBB were making me nervous. I knew that the ducks, if they were even still there, knew that something was wrong, that these squawking birds were not making a production for the sake of practicing for a Broadway musical. I got as low to the ground as possible, crawling on all fours with my camera bag on my back when necessary. I heard movement in the water, I could see ripples on water's surface. I crept around the edges of the cat tails, listening to the chatter of nervous ducks just ten feet away on the other side of the thick vegetation. I stopped where the cat tails parted, and gave me a clear view of the water. Just then, four green wing teal came around the spit of grasses. Spotting me, they exploded into the air, wings and water making quiet a racket. I snapped this one shot as they lifted off.

Green wing teal exploding into flight

Knowing that these birds had been here for several days, I grabbed the nearest cover that I could find and waited for them to come back. In doing so, the female northern shoveler nervously flushed from the cat tails. I dug in and waited, and sure enough after about a minute they all came back.

Green wing teal coming in for a landing

Female northern shoveler coming back to rest

These birds all landed in the same place that they took off, the other side of the vegetation that I could not get looks at. I hung out there for a few minutes, listening to their grunts and skwauks of a conversation. There were seven teal and one shoveler in total, one teal revealed herself for a brief moment and allowed me to get the bins on her, and snap a quick photo.