The rest areas can get very crowded, but these geese and ducks don’t seem to care.
There are plenty of gray November days for Holiday travel. And a few not so gray. Grand or gloomy, you may encounter a few of these fellow travelers, and a few locals, along the way.
The sandpiper left as soon as the days lost their color.
Yeah, dummy, summer’s over. It gets cold up here.
Most of your brethren are much further south while you’re here, working the shallows.
But thanks for staying late for the photo session.
A year-round black-capped chickadee, working on a seed. Don’t the claws look like Mickey Mouse gloves?
Another Northerner, this nuthatch never knows up from down.
Goldfinches don’t leave, but they change into less-colorful winter coats.
Like the geese, many of the travelers are just passing through. The diving ducks don’t mind the cold water, but are long gone when the ice covers the flow.
A pair of female Hooded Mergansers, sporting their characteristic “hairdos”.
A male and a female.
The male Hooded Merganser is one wild and crazy-lookin’ guy. He also does not make it easy to get his picture.
The mallards, on the other webbed foot, regularly pose, en masse.
No idea what type of duck this is.
This summer gull won’t be here much longer.
These may be Buffleheads. The red eye, like with the loons, could be an adaptation for diving.
And later, the geese flying the other way. They’ll figure it out soon.
These also fly, but not quite so actively.The juvenile eagle dropped in.
Perhaps heading home to see Mom and Dad?
The last of the buffleheads chill before flying on.
