“Softest of mornings, hello. And what will you do today, I wonder, to my heart?” - Mary Oliver, “Softest of Mornings”
Hello friends! Well it finally happened, the ice finally melted. Fear not though, I have several hundred ice photos - though I will never post them all, but we have more posts here before I’m through. So without further ado, here we go! Today I’m introducing another special guest, the scaup. I honestly don’t know if they were greater scaups, lesser scaups or a mix of both but thankfully the camera doesn’t care!
Sunrise, February 2, 2024 - last sunrise photo over the ice (for now anyway).
Six scaups to be exact. Five females and one male. You can see they are smaller than the mallards.
Male on the left, female on the right.
Perhaps the one in the center is the leader?
Their colors change depending on the light. Dark colors are so interesting that way.
I didn’t see them land but I did see them take off. They didn’t stay very long!
Here they go, showing us their wings. The wings should help me identify them…but I’m still not sure.
The hooded mergansers took off with them and maybe you can see that scaups are bigger than the mergansers.
How they don’t run into each other is a mystery.
And then they were gone.
Somebody left behind a feather.
Actually a few feathers!
Found my magic pen! Who knows what I might write now?!?
You have started my morning softly.
Learning my shore birds, did not grab the opportunity when I lived near the shore