Photo of the Long-tailed Duck in Canon City

[SeEttaM .]

 I got one photo yesterday of the female Long-tailed Duck found a few days ago by Rich Miller.  It is not the best photo possible as this duck swam to the back part of this privately owned pond and I got a quick shot of it from the public parking lot before it swam out of my view.  It does show field marks and it is interesting that it has a lot less black on it's head than the female Long-tailed Duck I found at Brush Hollow Reservoir in 2012.  I haven't seen enough of this species to know if this is just an individual difference or if the 2012 duck had begun a molt into spring plumage as shown in Sibleys.  I would be interested if anyone knows this.

Unfortunately I lost the media card with the photo of the current duck for 24 hours and just refound it (those sd cards are pretty small).  So I have uploaded that photo onto my Birds and Nature blog and I have linked the photos of the 2012 Long-tailed Duck in the text of this blog entry.

SeEtta Moss

Canon City

http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com