There were lots and lots of ducks in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Monday, including this group of what look to be Canvasback ducks (Aythya valisineria), a species that I do not see very often. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes, the Canvasback is a “diving duck that is gregarious during the nonbreeding season, forming large single-species rafts or mixing with Redheads and scaups. It dives underwater to feed on plant tubers, seeds, and clams.” If you look closely at the first photo, you can see several Canvasbacks in the process of diving as the group slowly swam by me in the deep waters of the bay.
Most of the ducks were quite far away and stayed with the group, but one of them came a little bit closer to shore. I am not certain what the duck was doing, but it was bending, twisting, and stretching its body, coming partially out of the water several times, as you can see in the second image. As the Canvasback was doing those “exercises,” a smaller Pied-billed Grebe swam into view in the background and I captured the third image—I love it when I can capture two different species in a single frame.
Mike Powell 