Are We Walking to Alaska

Are We Walking to Alaska
Are We Walking to Alaska - A True Story

Friday, February 10, 2017

Birds of a Feather

A short ride on a gloomy and cold Saturday afternoon.
 But oh the beauty we saw  - Mr. Mallard with his handsome colors and beautiful feather pattern on his back
 Mrs. Mallard with soft feathers in lovely, lacy designs.
 Another Mallard standing on the ice on Lake Padden  - with raindrops making a pattern on the water-covered ice behind him.  At one time a week or so ago the lake was frozen completely across - which has not happened since we moved to Washington in 2001.
 On the baseball field by the lake - another flock of American Wigeons nibbling their lunch

 As we were leaving the park we spotted a Rufous Sided Towhee in a bush.  He sat nicely while I took some photos.  He was all puffed up to keep warm on our cold, rainy day.

 And just a few blocks from home - a Red Tail Hawk up in a tree.
 One of the best shots I've ever gotten of the color on the tail feathers.

14 comments:

Tom said...

...nice collection of feathery friends.

Candy S said...

The Mallards seem to have adjusted to the cold quite well. The male is handsome in his bright colors but for some reason I think the female's feathers are prettier with the lovely lacy feather patterns. Love the pictures of the red tail hawk too. It does seem that the snow has left your area but it came to my back yard. We had nearly white out conditions for a while this week.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Hugs,
Candy

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

wonderfulclse shots of the MAlards an ou can certainy see why that Hawk has been named. Have a lovely weekend.

Small City Scenes said...

Nice Ducks. I've always like Mallards too. Had ducks when I was a kid.
As soon as the Red-tails see my camera they fly off. You got some nice pictures.
MB

eileeninmd said...

Hello, awesome collection of birds. I love the ducks, hawk and the pretty Towhee. Great series! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

The Towhee is one of my favorite birds. They are usually on the ground under the trees when we hike. Enjoy your weekend my sweet friend! Hope the weather is better now! Hugs, Diane

Mary said...

The mallards are always such calm and well behaved ducks - and the towhees are one of my favorites here and we do have many, male and female, scuffling about in the leaf mold all winter. Love your hawk pix - great shots of one of raptors we see often also - they have been responsible for ridding our garden of voles I believe, which is a good thing as they were feasting non-stop on my plant roots for many years!


Stay warm JoAnn - happy weekend, Mary x

carol l mckenna said...

What an adventure you had and wonderful 'feathered friends' and marvelous photography of them ~ thanks,

Wishing you a Happy and Peaceful Weekend ~ ^_^

Judy Biggerstaff said...

Great pics of the birds and ducks. Thanks for sharing them.

Latane Barton said...

Very nice collection of bird, indeed. Love how you got the hawks tail feathers!

J said...

I'm just glad the water is un-freezing and the ducks will have their pleasant swimming and diving area back to enjoy!

Rose said...

You sure got to see a lot of birds!

Julie Fukuda said...

Brrrr! I am listening to the wind rattling the windows and looking at your fluffed-up birds. We were able to find some mallards on our nature walk this month but no widgeons this winter. I guess they found your locale a bit more welcoming.

A Colorful World said...

Great photos! We can see the Sisters from our home so we must not be far! The only way I am able to access your blog now is to link on a meme comment as I am doing now. I guess you can't comment on mine. Going to try to start a new blog and hope that solves the problem. Will post the link soon.