Duck Day 2010

One of my long time traditions for New Year's Day has been to tour a number of bodies of water in the county and look for waterfowl. I call it "Duck Day" and 2010 was not too bad a year. As the years have gone on I have had more difficulty finding more than the "dummy ducks" as a result of extensive development, but the opportunities are there. I still found Bufflehead Ducks in an old mill pond, spotted plenty of Ruddy Ducks most everywhere I visited (including, to my surprise, a popular "walking park" pond,) and an amazing number of Rick Billed Gulls. The score of the day was a group of Hooded Mergansers (shown above), not because the species was so unusual -- they aren't here -- but because of where they were. I threw in a trip to Cary's premier metro park expecting to see dummy ducks and little else, and what should I see right away but these guys. They hung around until one duffus urged his unleashed dogs to "go get them!" Score ZERO for me, but happily zero for Bowser and Rex. I am looking forward to another great year for bird encounters. Day One went well...364 to go.