The redhead - Not just a prairie bird.

Redhead duck - photographed 2 km from where I live in Kelowna, BC.

I have seen redheads before, but only ever in Alberta.  I lived there for 10 years and discovered that they were fond of pothole lakes - those small bodies of water found throughout the grasslands.  I remember hearing that some redheads appeared on Vancouver Island, their presence causing quite a stir among the birding community.  I didn't expect to find any in BC, little lone only 2 km from where I live.

If you look at a range map (click here), you will notice that they can be found along the entire Okanagan.  They also breed in the Kootenays.  They are dabbling ducks, meaning that they will bob, head down, in the shallows eating aquatic vegetation.  Among the plants they also take snails, small clams (zebra muscles), and a host of aquatic insects attached to their fodder.  

I photographed the duck with a crop sensor Nikon camera, a 1.4x teleconverter, and my cherished 500 mm PF lens.  Even with the teleconverter on and the loss of a stop of light, I managed an exposure of 1/500th of a second with an ISO of 200 and the minimum aperture of f/8.  It was all due to the exceptional day I was enjoying.  And, at 9:00 in the morning, the angle of the light was still low enough to produce excellent illumination.  

It was a joy seeing them.  It was a beautiful day yesterday and I managed to photograph about 8 or 9 species including a ruddy duck, a pair of kinglets, and a towhee.  In all, I took almost 100 photos.  I will post some more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com


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