Well not really an Ugly Duckling but one of the ducklings doesn’t belong.
While checking canals on Willow Island I came across a family of Mergansers.
Appears Mrs.Merganser had adopted a duckling that wasn’t her own…my sources are telling me that the “Ugly Duckling” is a Common Goldeneye.
Well if your fortunate enough to find an Osprey it would likely be perched on a pole or in a tree near water…now that you have spotted one there are two easy ways to determine if it’s a juvenile or an adult.
The easiest way would be by the feathering color as the young have white fringed feathers until they mature. Where as the adults are all a dark brown.
Now looking at the eyes and you see that the juveniles have orange eyes and the adults would be yellow.
Well that was your Osprey IDing 101 for the day…hopefully this will be helpful if you ever have the chance to see one of these beautiful raptors.
Change in subject size as I move from Pelicans and Osprey to Hummingbirds.
The last two weeks of August always brings plenty of action in the English Gardens here in Winnipeg…the Hummingbirds now gear up for migration and seem to go into a feeding frenzy.