Day 350: December 16th – En Route Birding

Rainy, low 40s, light breezes

       When you try to get an image a day and do at least a minimal amount of birding, much of it is “en route birding” where you have a full schedule to meet during the day and have to confine your outdoor adventures to pulling off on the side of the road or finding a half hour or so to drop into good birdy places along your “flight plan”.  And so it was today.

       We were heading over to Stamford, Connecticut for a luncheon date with a couple of our old college buddies and their wives.  From there, the plan was to push on to Shelton and to the ice rink where our grandson was playing hockey in a battle for first place.  With the short days as we approach the solstice, this really does not leave a lot of daylight to get the shot.  As we headed to Stamford, Sharon suggested we drop in to the Roosevelt State Park we visited last Sunday.  We hoped to get a couple of shots of the waterfowl which was bound to be there.  The question was, would it be in close enough to give us a nice quick shot.  As luck would have it, there they were….. Ruddy ducks and Ring-necked ducks.  The birds were close enough, but of course the rain and dark skies did not make for ideal conditions.  Still, as I’ve said before, you take what you can get and move on.

       As if to throw the dog a bone, as we left the park we found a beautiful Red-tailed hawk (how many of these have we seen and photographed this year?) perched in a tree right along the road.  I approached slowly in the RAV and rolled the window down and grabbed a few shots.  The bird sat and gave me several different poses before I departed.  When I left, the bird was still sitting, showing no signs of departing any time soon.

       Finally, as we turned off route 35 and crossed over a bridge, we noticed several ducks on the water beneath.  I quickly pulled over, grabbed the camera and went to check on the quarry.  Buffleheads were on the western side of the bridge, but too distant to get any shots in this subdued light.  I checked the opposite side of the road and sure enough there was a nice pair of Hooded mergansers in close enough to capture with the Nikon.  OK….we had photos for the day and I was free to get on with the scheduled business of the day.