Birds in the Wild

Tedrick said:
American Widgeon. Gadwall has no white, and is overall a pretty bland grey-brown bird.
Click to expand...
After your post I had to look them both up... I think your iden is correct. I do see patches of white in folded wings of both drakes and hens in some pics of Gadwalls, and the hens have a faint two-toned head, but from pics I've looked at the big giveaway is the bill. Gadwalls have a darker bill and Widgeons have a lighter bill with a dark tip in all pics I looked at.
 
GuyK said:
After your post I had to look them both up... I think your iden is correct. I do see patches of white in folded wings of both drakes and hens in some pics of Gadwalls, and the hens have a faint two-toned head, but from pics I've looked at the big giveaway is the bill. Gadwalls have a darker bill and Widgeons have a lighter bill with a dark tip in all pics I looked at.
Click to expand...

Yeah it does look most likely to be a American Wigeon drake. Question remains why he was hanging around a female Mallard and chasing the male away? Odd behaviour.
 
Not too terribly wild locations, being in suburban city parks and all. Pretty sure the raptor is an immature bald eagle, but I have no idea about the duck. I'm really not good with waterfowl.
 

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(the photo posted earlier by @GuyK, cropped and juiced up a wee bit)

Mrs. H concurred with my suspicion*: The above-referenced duck appears to be a (male) wood duck.
(with his man bun/tuft furled)
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* I didn't offer my guess a priori because I am not so good at duck ID in general.
 
mhardy6647 said:
fantastic photographs.
That said, Mrs. H isn't absolutely sure which species it is (?!)
She/we R thinking it's a long-eared owl (borrowed photo of one below). Do you happen to know if it's a long-eared or a great horned owl?

View attachment 42484
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Looks like a LEOW to me. The ear tufts are too long and set too close together, and the orbital discs are taller and narrower than a great horned owl.
 
Now -- mind you, I'm not the birder in the family ;) -- but I think those are black vultures, not turkey vultures. The latter have red heads; the former... well... you know. Kind of black-ish. Maybe a pastel black.

I will check with Ms Certified Birder, too, though.

:)
 
Meanwhile, aways up north -- we've got a handsome red-shouldered hawk hangin' around the back forty -- lookin', mostly (I think) for voles and other tasty rodentia to snarf. We see him/her/them pretty much daily. They're unmistakable on the wing, having conspicuous arcs or crescents on the top and near the outer reaches of each their wings. These are easy to see when the bird's in flight. The size and the boldly striped tail are also pretty good diagnostics for these.

Here're are a couple of bad photos (wrong lens, bad light) :p of it out back this morning.

DSC_0364 (2).JPGDSC_0371 (2).JPG
 
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