Frosty mornings & lessons in winter birding

While I am a lover of summer time, we are lucky here in Victoria when it comes to winter birding! Quite a few resident birds stay here throughout the year while many others head down from the north to enjoy our mild winter.

Lingering frost on a crisp winter’s morning.

Now that I’ve been through my first winter of birding, I know easily who the visitors are now and who I can expect to see. In the winter, I look forward to seeing lots of lovely seabirds and ducks come south to our region. From Harlequin Ducks to Surf Scoters and American Wigeons, they are all a joy to watch. I wonder if, for them, coming south is like a welcome vacation from the cold?

Duck, Duck, Goose, Part 1: delighting wigeons and beautiful buffleheads

Mallard Duck, a common resident of urban parks

Before the beginning of my birding days, I was always a big fan of ducks. While I can never decide what type of birds are my favourite, ducks will always be one of the contenders. There’s just something about their quacks and other noises, their webbed feet, the way they land on the water and how it beads on their feathers. And they are really cute, which helps. Each spring, I keenly look forward to baby mallard duck season and they will always be an old favourite. And despite the fact that mallard ducks are considered an invasive pest in New Zealand, when I lived there, I still loved them. They are, after all, what most people think of when you say ducks…but there are a lot more ducks out there than you think.