• Avian,  coffee life,  coffee shops

    Annual Visitor

    January 23, 2022

    Every year a Common Goldeneye returns to the ponds. I’ve got no way of knowing if its the same bird or the birds gender. However, each winter one, and only one, arrives and dominates the mallards. Yesterday I took a few images and tried to get a video. This is the best I can offer.

    I did make a stop at Mugs Coffee Lounge on Laurel. They did not close down but remodeled and opened back up a couple days ago. Really did a nice job with making it seem more spacious and brighter. Ran into my my friend, Dan, and was able to catch up on life’s happenings. We have blue skies and sunshine and hovering around 45 degrees.

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  • Avian,  Canon Powershot G12

    It’s Saturday Morning

    July 14, 2012

    Common Goldeneye

    The Common Goldeneye is a medium-sized sea duck. They are divers finding most of their food from crustaceans, aquatic insects and molluscs. The adult males have a dark head with a greenish gloss and a circular white patch below the eye, a dark back and a white neck and belly while the adult females have a brown head and a mostly grey body. Definitely not as showy as us males. Their legs and feet are orange-yellow. I enjoy sitting by the waters edge watching as they dive, playing the waiting game with myself to see where they resurface.

    I started a 4-day trip yesterday so when you read this I should be sitting on the patio at my hotel in Santa Barbara eating breakfast. Sometimes there are perks with my work. 🙂

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  • Avian

    Common Golden-eye

    March 16, 2012

    Golden-eye

    Since we had open water on our lake throughout this winter season there have hen several Common Goldeneye. Crustaceans as their predominant prey during migration and winter so the open water supplies that. They are one of the prettiest ducks so I have enjoyed watching them feed and hope to see more of them this summer.

    In contrast to the mallards I wrote about yesterday, both the breeding and winter habitat of these birds has been degraded by clearance and pollution. However, this is the only duck in North America known to derive short-term benefits from lake acidification. Information courtesy of Wikipedia.

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