This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
The Pink-eared Duck Malacorhynchus membranaceus has to be my favourite duck! For obvious reasons it has listed under “other names” in field guides “Zebra Duck” and it is easily identified from all other duck species in Australia by its distinct stripes. Pink-eared Ducks bobbing on the water.
The Congo Basin is the only place to shelter all three subspecies of gorilla: the Western Lowland Gorilla, the Eastern Lowland Gorilla and the endangered Mountain Gorilla. The region also provides food, fresh water and shelter to more than 75 million people of nearly 150 distinct ethnic groups.
It turned out to be an inspired choice, because my usual style of birding — parking at a trailhead and walking kilometers away from both my car and most other forms of shelter — would indeed have been disastrous. Instead, I was able to stick close to my car, taking shelter in it when necessary, and still see lots of birds.
Ducks and geese may not be a particularly unusual sight in the wild, but have you ever thought about keeping them as pets? Ducks and geese make excellent pets because it is interesting to watch them as they go about their activities and engage with their environment. They can make excellent, if slightly quirky, pets.
Ducks and geese may not be a particularly unusual sight in the wild, but have you ever thought about keeping them as pets? Ducks and geese make excellent pets because it is interesting to watch them as they go about their activities and engage with their environment. They can make excellent, if slightly quirky, pets.
In the face of endless snow, all I want to do is seek shelter, warmth, and booze. Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend could have been either his first Harlequin Duck or his first Glaucous Gull of the year. To all you hardy naturalists who have already logged Christmas Bird Count hours in service to citizen science, I salute you!
That’s all well and good if I want to be the world’s premier duck-watcher (and why not? Ducks are great!) The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks chose a more sheltered location but that meant they had to fly farther for their meals; they would arrive with slick head-feathers and fill up before retreating again.
By the time migration rolled around, we were all sheltering in place. A Wood Stork, Glossy Ibis, and Wood Ducks were all counted towards my Birdathon list. Typically, team members fan out across their region, counting as many species as they possibly can from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Of course, nothing is typical about 2020.
Luckily, for birds, I didn’t have to, as a skulky Winter Wren sought shelter right outside my dining room window, adding a highly improbable third wren species to my yard list. This month may have brought uncommon cold and rain to Upstate New York, but June went out on an exceedingly high note for us. How about you?
Mandarin Ducks, Munich, Germany. And they aren’t nearly as famous as the vagrant/escaped Mandarin Duck of Central Park. But they were still Mandarin Ducks! But the Kentish Plover was sheltering its young under its body, and the Little Ringed Plover was incubating an egg — right in the middle of downtown Madrid!
The layout of the lake has many small fingers that provide shelter, shallow water and many dense areas of Willow and Cottonwood trees. On my last couple of visits, California Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Ruddy Ducks, Common Gallinule, Western Grebe, Eared Grebe and Pied-billed Grebes were on the water.
Cattails line parts of the ponds, all of this giving shelter to a very nice variety of birds. This winter the waters were consistently holding Ring-neck Ducks, Buffleheads, Northern Shovelers, American Wigeon, Green-wing and Cinnamon Teal, Gadwalls, Ruddy Ducks and Common Mergansers.
This barrier beach habitat is often where Snowy Owls , Horned Larks , Snow Buntings , and other winter birds find food and shelter and it also serves as nesting grounds for American Oystercatchers and Piping Plovers , both of which arrive in March. Instead, I focused on the ducks and shorebirds, of which there were plenty!
Even the most barren habitat shelters enough stealthy, confusing, downright frustrating species to scare off newbies. If you look for ducks in summer or warblers in winter, you’re very likely to be disappointed. Too many steps in a process can seem daunting, so always keep it as simple as possible.
There are four scenic overlooks, a woodpecker viewing area, a migratory duck pond, and access to The Appalachian Trail. Accommodations (100-room lodge, 30 cottages, 105 tent/RV/trailer campsites, and 16 shelters) make for relaxed birding on 12 miles of trails and lakeside. Sky Meadows State Park, Virginia. American Kestrel.
The bitter wind was still blowing – my photographs give a misleadingly summery look to the wood – and as a result a number of birds were sheltering here. There was a Common Sandpiper on the burn, along with a Mallard duck with a single duckling.
The nests can also serve as shelter for newly fledged young and for adults, especially during winter in resident populations like those in the California central valley. According to Birds of North America Online , there may be several reasons. A large number of nests could also serve as decoys for predators. .”
As a duck hunter, he had seen Redheads and scaups and mergansers throughout the winter, but as I did not relish getting up at 3:30 a.m. From his time hunting, Brian knew where rafts usually sheltered from the wind on the Santa Rosa Sound, and we strolled down the shore towards the black dots in the distance.
The only shelter is at the Sailing Club and there are also picnic tables there too. The reservoir offered Tufted Ducks , Eurasian Wigeon , Gadwall , Northern Shoveler , Common Pochard , Eurasian Teal , Eurasian Coots , Great Crested Grebes , Little Grebes , Canada Geese and Greylag Geese. kilometres/2.25
The eggs are Peregrine Falcon eggs, stolen from aeries in Wales, though Lendrum keeps insisting they’re duck eggs. If you are looking for a ‘good read’ while you are sheltering in place, this is a very good choice–entertaining, part true crime thriller, part journalistic puzzle, part educational.
From spring hole to spring hole we slowly moved, our captain providing running commentary on the number of gallons flowing from Silver Springs, the number of movies that had been shot here, and the wildlife seeking shelter within the cool waters. Of course, Anhingas have caught on to their hiding techniques.
During high tide the island is cut off, but people will deliberately strand themselves on the island to engage in six hours of solid sea watching in the hope of picking up species like Northern Fulmar, Leach’s Storm-petrels , skuas, sea ducks, loons and Manx Shearwaters.
It is a sheltered area with numerous picnic tables for the people visiting and bird feeders for the feathered variety of visitors. Arriving late morning on a Saturday we had no problem parking on Dryham Lane and there were a few people taking the trail around the fields. Our first stop was the area marked Wild Bird Cafe next to the car-park.
I then noticed there were actually some ducks tucked in against the tufts of vegetation. They were out of the wind and I asked Grant if he could see the two ducks. He could see them once I pointed them out and we moved slowly forward to see the pair of Pink-eared Ducks. Pink-eared Ducks out of the wind. Pink-eared Ducks.
This encourages the small fish to seek shelter below the shadow and the bird then pounces on the fish. Our wide expanses of water will soon become smaller and the ducks will return! We have both the white and grey morph of Eastern Reef Egret in Broome, but the grey is more common.
Let’s explore some of these far-off places and the birds that find shelter here. Its numbers are declining rapidly due to feral cats and this duck is currently listed as vulnerable. Two of the remotest islands in the world are Easter Island in the South-eastern Pacific and Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic.
So does protecting the extremities, as ducks do with the counter-current heat exchange in their feet and ptarmigans do with their feather-shaggy slippers. Beyond this, many birds who are routinely exposed to great cold have adaptations that help them limit their heat loss.
The header photo shows the remains of Marlgu Billabong on November 10th 2018 looking left from the shelter. Marlgu Billabong looking right from the shelter. We soon positioned ourselves in the shelter to watch the birdlife and there was no denying it was a hot and dry day and the shade was appreciated.
Wallaby seeks shelter beside an excavator. There were 6 Royal Spoonbills and numerous Hardhead and Pacific Black Ducks. This wallaby had been sitting in the bucket as we approached and then hopped out and remained in the shade near the tracks. Bird life in a pool on the Maitland River.
The National Park is unusual because it offers very few facilities compared to most, but there is a sealed road right into the small car park and a shade shelter with a table and chairs and information about the park. The Silver Gulls, Caspian, Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns were further away and the variety of ducks was incredible.
There is a small shelter and picnic bench at this location and depending on visibility you may or may not be able to see the coast! There are very few benches along the route, but one marked short trail about half-way between Foster and Fish Creek offers views of Wilson’s Promontory.
Also on the ground you’ll see your first Finsch’s Duck. This attractive relative of Australia’s Maned Duck is the most common duck you’ll see on the tour, but visitors always love seeing them and their ubiquity doesn’t detract from their attractiveness. It certainly has no known relatives.
Many of the ducks will be familiar to Nearctic birders, but Common Pochard , Tufted Ducks and Spot-billed Ducks may be new. Reeds attract Meadow Buntings and Reed Buntings and provide shelter for little fish which, in their turn attract Great Egrets , Little Egrets and Grey Herons.
The distance around the lake is approximately five kilometres and there are limited places to shelter if a storm approaches fast. Map of the lake Some of the waterbirds and ducks appeared to be used to the cold weather and water, but maybe they would rather bob about on the water than be blown about on the land.
It was also then that I managed to work out what the weird looking distant ducks were, they weren’t ducks, they were huge rafts of Fluttering Shearwaters. I’ve never seen so many petrels so close to shore in such sheltered waters – petrels are birds I associate with large bodies of open water.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content