Tommy Thompson park Dec 31 2007

[Jaedon]

I went for a walk with my 5 year old this afternoon while the baby was sleeping and managed to find an American Kestrel (I have no idea if they checked his paperwork at the Canadian border   ) flying around us.  We chased him around for a little while and managed quite a few nice shots.  Especially the one with the fresh kill in it's talons.  That also happened to be the first shot of the afternoon.



About an hour later we found him again and he sat and posed for me this time.







Then a about a Kilometer further into the park we saw a Juvenile Bald Eagle sitting WAY out on the ice away from anyone who didn't happen to have a long lens or a telescope to see him with.



And lastly there were TONS of ducks around...but this one was my favourite of the afternoon.



There we're quite a few Long Tailed Ducks (please tell me if I got that right or not)

Female:


Male:


And this guy who I have no idea what he is other than really cool looking:


Thanks for looking.

Jay

[GStuart]

The last is a Common Goldeneye.  Nice photos.

[Jaedon]

Thanks for the ID GStuart.  I know I have the wrong name on the ones I called Long Tailed but I cannot find them in any of my birding books.  The closest thing I have found was a Pintail but the colouration seems wrong.  This one had a distinctly black head and the pintails in my books have brown heads.

[GStuart]

The only thing you are missing about them is their hyphen.  

Long-tailed Duck.  Perhaps your bird books list them by the old name - Oldsquaw?

[Jaedon]

Thats the one.  Thanks G.  Old Squaw is exactly what I have in my books but they did not show the winter plumage.  That's what was leaving me confused.