My Wood Duck Who Thinks He's a Mallard is Back!

Well, I knew it was time to start resuming my walks around Carolina Beach Lake each afternoon after the Coots started accumulating for the winter flock which usually numbers between 40 and 80 residents.  Sometimes there are Ibis down there and yesterday there were four of them.  We are seeing them more frequently in the field across the street from the house now as well.  I think the one on the far left is the most junior member.

Two of the aforementioned Coots.

You can see his big very funny feet here!

The last two days my favorite duck has returned and hopefully will be here for awhile!  Here you can see all his amazing colors.  He didn't return last year but I saw him for about a month the year before.  He is still hanging out with the mallards and now he is the aggressor in disagreements whereas before they would shun him.

This is a picture from today where the sun was behind me instead of in front.

He came up to feed some on the beach.  Look at all the colors in his iridescent head.

I have been going to Ft. Fisher each day at low tide to see if my Godwit will come back (or the Avocents or Rail).  A whole flock of Oystercatchers showed up, stayed for a few minutes and then cleared out again.

There was a small flock of these birds flitting around. They were so far away, I assumed they were Sanderlings but when I got home I discovered they were Semipalmated Plovers! I saw these in another place down here just about this time of year last year.  They really blended in with the oyster covered beach. They were very small and I amazed the pictures turned out as well as they did as they were pretty far away and I was looking into the sun!