Sept. 4, 2016 - Birds in Flight

Here are some photos of birds in flight. They were all taken this spring and summer.

This male Wood Duck doesn’t look like the spectacularly colorful bird that we see in the spring. Feathers need to be replaced because they get worn out. Male Wood Ducks shed all their feathers starting around June and grow a new set that makes them look like they do in this photo. This is called eclipse plumage; I especially like the pattern on the underside of the wing. Later in the summer they will grow another set of body feathers that will give them their colorful breeding plumage once again. This photo was taken at our lake home in northern Minnesota.

DuckWoodmaleeclipseplumageflightDunningLakeItascaCounty20160805

Belted Kingfishers are notoriously hard to photograph. They seem to fly away as soon as you start to approach them. This one happened to fly toward me and I was able to get this shot showing the full pattern of its wing. This photo was also taken at our lake home.

KingfisherBeltedfemaleflightDunningLakeItascaCounty20160730

We have Great Blue Herons that come to our lake to feed. While taking a boat ride, we flushed this one and I got a nice photo of it flying to another feeding spot.

HeronGreatBlueDunningLakeItascaCounty20160520

Common Loons nest on our lake. I’m always pleased when I can get a clear photo of a loon in flight.

LoonCommonflightDunningLakeItascaCounty20160806

This spring we had a pair of Trumpeter Swans that visited our lake almost daily for a couple of weeks. I guess they found it a good place to feed. I was hoping they would also nest on our lake but that didn’t happen.

SwanTrumpeterDunningLakeItascaCounty20160520

This bird isn’t yet in flight but it looks like it is ready to take off. It’s a Whimbrel and I saw it in Two Harbors, Minnesota, when I took a trip to the North Shore.

WhimbrelTwoHarborsLakeCounty20160527