An afternoon with a couple of visitors waiting for spring to arrive
The pintail gets its name from the long pin feathers on the tails of the males
I was very lucky this week to have the opportunity to photograph a couple of ducks that I don’t often see. It’s not that they are rare ducks, in fact they are quite common, even numerous species, in many parts of North America, but I don’t often see them in this area. One was a northern pintail.
The male especially is a spectacular looking character. He looks like he has put on his finest tuxedo and has headed out onto the ice with his head held up high to court the lady ducks. In the location I was at there were dozens of these pintail ducks milling about. They are just passing through on their way further north and west.
They breed on the prairies and north into Alaska and some in northern Ontario. By now most of them have paired up and it is comical to watch them.
They seem to be quite well mannered ducks, like they have gone to finishing school. They didn’t squabble among themselves or with any of the several other species of ducks that were present. They preferred to walk everywhere they went rather than fly, even when it meant walking several hundred yards to the next opening in the ice.
One of the pair would head off in a determined direction and the other would follow, never getting very far separated. Even their walk was elegant and mannerly, rather stiff and erect, like they had to keep up appearances.
When they got to the new open water they thought nothing of hopping into the frigid water to dabble on the surface for seeds and plant matter or any bits of protein they could gather.
The pintail gets its name from the long pin feathers on the tails of the males. At this time of year the breeding males have beautiful long tail feathers extending well out behind their bodies that give them an even more elegant look.
The other species that was mixed in with the many ducks congregated by the shoreline was a few northern shovelers. There were not as many of them as there were pintails, but the males with their beautiful multi-colouring stood out like beacons in the afternoon sunshine. Blues, greens, browns, white, orange, black all in one duck. It is pretty easy to see where they get their name, too. They have a huge shovel of a beak on the front of their face, and they were putting it to good use.
I was watching two males working a small pocket of open water. It was hard to get pictures of them because they stayed so busy dipping their beaks into the water searching for food that you had no time to get a photo. Eventually though they came out of that mini-pond and headed to the next one a few yards away so I got some nice shots.
Like the pintails, they will head north and west to breed after they refuel here in our area. It was very nice to get to spend the afternoon with these two species of ducks.
I look forward to much more activity as the Kawarthas come alive with spring.