On The Water
Look out over the water. Gulls, like Smeagull the Seagull spend a lot of time on the water because that is one of the places they look for food. On the water you will also find Ducks, Cormorants, and Geese.
Mallard Flight Sequence
Mallard
Mallards are the ducks you are most likely to see. The males are called drakes. They have bright green heads in the spring and summer and mostly brown bodies. Females are called hens and are all brown.
Smeagull Says,
"Get the Facts"
Mallards are Dabbling Ducks. Dabbling Ducks don’t dive. They dip their heads and necks and shoulders down into shallow water, to reach the weeds and grasses on which they feed. This kind of feeding is called “dabbling.” When dabbling ducks dabble, it pushes their rear ends up in the air, which is an easy way to spot them.
Surf Scoter Flock
Surf Scoter
Surf Scoters are jet black with a broad, three-colored bill (orange, white, and yellow.) You might see them in pairs or small flocks sometimes quite close to shore.
Male Red-breasted Merganser (drake)
Male and female Red-breasted Merganser Flock
Male Red-breasted Merganser (drake)
Male and female Red-breasted Merganser Flock
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-breasted Mergansers are mostly brown with a thin bright orange bill and they have a crest, a spiky row of feathers that runs from their foreheads to the back of their heads. Red-breasted Mergansers often dive in shallow water close to shore.
Smeagull Says,
"Get the Facts"
Surf Scoters and Red-breasted Mergansers are diving ducks. Diving ducks dive. When you see a duck swimming along and it suddenly disappears into the water? That’s a diving duck. Diving ducks eat fish and creatures that live on the seafloor and also crustaceans (animals with shells).
Double-crested Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorants dive, but they are not ducks. They are a separate species. They are bigger than ducks and have thin, dark beaks. They are very dark brown but look black from a distance. You often see them perched on rocks or on pilings, with their wings spread out to dry like clothes on a clothesline. If you are looking through binoculars you may be able to see their eyes, which are sapphire blue. Cormorants swim underwater using their feet to propel them and they can hold their breath for a long time.
Double-crested Cormorant Takeoff
Double-crested Cormorant Diving and Swimming Underwater
Canada Geese Swimming with Newly Hatched Babies
Canada Geese
Canada Geese are large birds, similar in size to swans. They often fly in a V formation and when they are in flight their warbling cries can be heard from a long way off. They also paddle on the water. Both parents care for their babies and right after hatching, long before the babies can fly they move them away from the nest. If you’re lucky, you might see a pair of Canada Geese swimming with their fluffy yellow babies.
Just Hatched Baby Canadian Geese in Their Goose Down Nest
Smeagull Says,
"Get the Facts"
The ducks, geese, and cormorants that live in the Refuge migrate. Most are here only part of the year although some Canada Geese and some Mallards stay throughout the year.
