Family: Anatidae

 

This morning Travalon and I met Jilly Moose and OK Cap at Crema Cafe, then OK Cap left and the rest of us went out to Sauk. We didn't see any eagles at the VFW Park, but we did see some flying by the dam. Travalon took some photos, but the eagles were very far away so none of the photos turned out that well. We stopped at the Mixing Bowl for coffee and treats, then we went to Okee, but this time there were no eagles hanging out on the ice. We took a walk on the trail that goes out to Paradise Island, but it was very cold out, so we didn't go all the way to Paradise Island. Then we came back to town and checked out the bird party by the Tenney Park Locks. The trumpeter swans are still around. In fact, there were lots of members of family Anatidae (the ducks, geese, and swans) around.

From what I can ascertain from Google searches, the purple-headed duck on the right of this photo and in the next few photos is some sort of mallard hybrid.

In these photos, you can see lots of goldeneye ducks.

Then Jilly Moose headed home, and Travalon and I went for a walk in the neighborhood. I told him that yesterday there was a bird party beyond the bridge near the Nau-Ti-Gal, so we walked over there, and he took some photos. The ducks were fairly far away, but they are clearly hooded mergansers.

In this photo, you can see the slightly larger male common merganser in the upper right of the photo. He is white with a black head and a bright red bill. And following him is a ring-necked duck.

Here is a female hooded merganser.

Right by our house, we saw the pair of sandhill cranes hollering at some other cranes on the other side of the street.

Travalon has been watching girls' basketball on and off all day, because this is their state tournament. Four teams he was really interested in were playing: Randolph (because his high school friend lives there), Waupun (because that same friend lived there for years), his hometown of Pewaukee, and Kettle Moraine, where another high school friend is the coach. Three of them won, but unfortunately Pewaukee lost, and that was the team he cared about the most. At least they got a silver ball; he said they have never been to state before. Pewaukee is having a real sports moment, because the volleyball team also came in second in state, and the boys' basketball and football won first place. He said it was not like that when he was in school - the girls' basketball team went three years without even winning a game! So second in the state is quite a turnaround from that!

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