Duck, Duck, Coot!

Hen Lesser Scaup Duck

What?  You thought I was going to say “Goose!”?  I spotted the pretty Lesser Scaup ducks along with the Common Coot at a local small park lake.  These cute ducks are pretty used to being around visitors so I was able to get pretty close to a lot of them.

I took the pictures yesterday, Jan. 31, 2016,  late in the afternoon.  It was a cool, cloudy day here, but the good news is that it is warming up a bit.  I am glad.  Not that Florida’s weather is anything to really complain about!  Please click on the thumbnail images to see the larger version of that photo.  Enjoy!

Drake Lesser Scaup Duck

Drake Lesser Scaup and Common Coot

A Pair of Lesser Scaup Ducks

Waterfowl, Wading Birds, and a Friend

Limpkin

Sandhill Cranes

American White Ibises and a resting Wood Stork

There have been a tremendous number of water birds, and wading birds here in my area in the last week.  I have seen several hundred Hooded Merganser ducks, about twenty-two or more Wood Storks, ten or so Great Blue Herons, probably thirty Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets,  Anhingas, Common Cormorants, White Pelicans (sorry no pictures as they left before I returned with the camera), a Tri-color Heron, hundreds of American White Ibises, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, Canada, Egyptian and Chinese Geese, Pied-billed Grebes,  Common Coots, and a Limpkin!

Such fun to watch all this action on a daily basis.  I took these pictures here in Sumter and Lake Counties in The Villages, Florida, in the past week.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Tri-colored Heron

Grey Squirrel

Great Blue Heron

 

 

Osprey

Wood Stork

 

 

 

Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets

Canada Goose

Pied-billed Grebe

American White Ibises

American White Ibises seem to be around in this area in many spots.  Most are gathered on the shorelines of the little park lakes but some also are roaming the neighborhood grazing on lawns.  The American White Ibises eat insects and worms mainly but also enjoy seeds and sometimes plants.

American Ibises are found in marshes and along bodies of water in addition to parks and sometimes, neighborhood lawns, here in Florida.  Occasionally American White Ibises can be spotted in other warm weather semi-tropical states, usually along the Gulf of Mexico, and Georgia or South Carolina near or on the Atlantic coast (I have also heard of some Ibises being seen in Southern California once in a while).

The Ibises are big flock social birds and like being with geese, ducks, herons, egrets, and the Wood Storks.  Ibises seem to be quite placid and content and people can easily observe the birds from a distance without spooking them – at least here in suburbia that is true.  I took most of these pictures last evening at dusk, with the exception being that of the white adult with the brown-colored juvenile which I took back in August also at the same lake.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger picture.  Enjoy!