We were visited today by one of the scarcest of the ducks in all of North America: the Bufflehead.
These are charming, busy little diving birds, always in motion. Makes them hard to photograph -- you just find the focus and the birds dive again. Or get up on the water to dance. Or take alarm and fly away. It's a challenge. I wandered all the way along the shoreline trying to get a good shot, but in the end I had to rely on other peoples' photographs for the close-up!
They usually travel in small groups, no more than ten. We had about six here. Hard to count -- again, they were underwater almost as much as they were on top of it, busily stuffing themselves with groceries. That's because they are only stopping here briefly, on their southern migration, and the adults are going to store up to 115 gm of fat -- more than a quarter of their body weight -- for fuel for the long trek south. Mind you, flying at 55 to 65 km/hr, these birds can travel 800 km. in one night. Wow!
Their breeding ground is far to the north, and they are small enough to take advantage of old nests left behind by Flickers. They are related to our lovely mergansers, but far less often spotted in Bondi Bay, so today was a special moment.
Bird watchers prize the Bufflehead both for its striking appearance and its relative scarcity. Its activity and pattern make it one of the most easily recognized of ducks, and one of the most popular with waterfowl enthusiasts. This is a duck that is more valuable to people as an object of delight than as a hunting statistic. Long may it continue to brighten our waters.
