My first gadwall. I haven’t even heard of them being in the Tampa bay area before. I didn’t know they were at Circle B Bar Reserve until I was standing on the trail thinking that these ducks didn’t quite look like mallards. I asked another birder standing by that I knew was an expert birder and he told me what they were. It was a cloudy morning and if the sun had been out I would have only gotten a blob taking this right into the sun. The male is in front, female in back.
A male ring neck duck was swimming in between the gadwall couple.
There was a little confrontation over space between the two males.
Two males and a female swimming together.
They are pretty with all of the different beige color patterns.
Ring neck ducks trying to rule the pond.
The usual black bellied whistlers.
Whistler duck butts. Even their bottoms are cute.
Busy preening before a nap.
Standing at attention.
The marshes were full of them.
A sora rail sighting. They aren’t very common at the park. This one was pretty far out in the marsh so this is heavily cropped.
These were taken right after Christmas. After a week of sun and warm weather, I finally had a chance to head out to Circle B Bar Reserve and a dark blanket of clouds stayed over the park the entire 4 hours I was there. At least it was not hot out and I was excited to add a new duck to my list. I keep hearing there are bufflehead duck sightings but I can’t seem to find them anywhere. I’ll keep looking.
