May 5, 2019 - Birds at Como Lake

The birds of summer are starting to arrive back in Minnesota. I went to Como Lake, a small urban body of water located in St. Paul, Minnesota, last week and took all these photos.

The Wood Duck is our most colorful waterfowl. These two males were content to be paddling around the lake. Usually at this time of the year, you see males fighting with each other and trying to impress the females.

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Here’s another Wood Duck photo. The color of the water makes this photo feel much different to me than the first one. Here, the duck was close to shore, so the brown vegetation is reflected in the lake. In the previous photo, the ducks were away from shore, so the blue sky is reflected in the water.

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There were plenty of raucous male Red-winged Blackbirds at the lake. This one is belting out his kon-ka-reeee call and trying to establish his breeding territory.

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Of course, there are always Mallards around. This male is decked out in his breeding plumage displaying his yellow bill and brilliant green head. There was almost no wind that day, so the surface of the lake was like glass. However, the camera captures not only the ripples behind the duck as it swims along, but also the water being pushed ahead of its breast.

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Here’s a little winter bird that I didn’t expect to see. It’s a Pine Siskin and they have usually left for their northern breeding grounds by now.

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Yellow-rumped Warblers are usually the first arrivals from that family of birds and there were plenty of them to be seen.

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The brown vegetation reflected in the water made a very pretty background for this Double-crested Cormorant as it rested on a submerged log.

CormorantDoublecrestedLakeComoPaul20190423