Bird of the Week – Long-tailed Duck
WC has been accused of neglecting waterfowl in his selection of Birds of the Week. Ironically, WC is a graduate of the University of Oregon, a Duck – a Fighting Duck. So WC will post a few duck photos, honoring his alma mater and answering certain carping quacking critics.
We’ll start with the Long-tailed Duck.
Long-tailed Duck, Tangle Lakes, Denali Highway
Formerly known as Oldsquaw, the Long-tailed Duck spends most of its life at sea. In the winter, you can find rafts of thousands of Long-tailed Ducks off shore of Kodiak Island, so many that despite the distance you can hear the calls. Which does indeed sound like old women chattering.
Long-tailed Duck Drake and Hen, St. Paul Island, Pribilofs
In the summer, they breed on lakes and ponds in Western and Arctic Alaska, as well as the mountain lakes of the Alaska and Brooks Ranges.
There is evidence that Long-tailed Ducks are in deep trouble, with drastic declines in populations, particularly in the Pacific Ocean population.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
That’s a very elegant and graceful duck! I had no idea such a duck existed. Thanks, nature! (And WC!)
Shoot,that ain’t a duck. That’s a pheasant.
Don’t shoot, mikey! It’s a duck!
Used to read stories in Outdoor Life or Field and Stream about gunning old squaws along Chesapeake Bay,if memory serves. Never ever saw one before. So it is a duck that wants to be a pheasant(or it wouldn’t have a pheasant- like tail). Bet it’s butt drags when that puppy gets soaked.
Nah. Water runs off it like water off a duck’s back.
WC, I look forward to your bird photos every week. Duck, duck, goose. I swan! I was not one who chided you for neglecting waterfowl, and I appreciate this ducky post.