May 2008 - This is one of my best bird photos - this is a male Wood Duck, taken in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. July 2008 - And this is another of my best bird photos - this is a male Northern Bobwhite, taken at the headwaters of the Missouri River, in Three Forks, Montana.
18 Apr 2010 - It was a treat for me to see common eider ducks for the first time when I was in Gloucester, Massachusetts, recently, both males and females, [male below left] in several coastal areas.
31 May 2010 - I spent the afternoon at Bartlett Lake, just north of Phoenix, and got some shots of a new bird. A pair of gila woodpeckers were feeding their young in a hole in a saguaro cactus and I watched both parents bringing insects to their hidden babies for quite awhile.
I also saw a phainopepla. That's a small shiny blue/black bird with a crest and red eyes. Quite impressive. That's the second one of those I've seen near the water outside of Phoenix.
Earlier this week I spent part of a morning at a nearby duck pond. Two mother ducks had ducklings in tow. One mother duck appeared to be a black mallard, which I'd never heard of, nor seen, before. And she had three ducklings, one of which was also black! [Correction: my dad says this is an American Black Duck, related to a mallard. I'd never heard of them before.]
22 June 2010 Elfin Forest, Los Osos, California - I saw this beautiful California quail as I was walking in the Elfin Forest. He was at the top of the bush, keeping watch, I expect, for his female and her chicks. The California quail remind me much of our Gamble's Quail in Arizona, with their topknots and similar coloring. And just as beautiful! :-)
28 June 2010 - I saw a beautiful American avocet in breeding plumage (rust-colored head) on my pontoon tour of Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing, California.
Also on that same trip, a long-billed curlew and a marbled godwit. 
They look similar but the curlew's beak curves down. Saw this juvenile cormorant as well. 
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