Male Bufflehead Courtship

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bufflehead, courtship, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday

Two days ago I happened upon about a dozen Buffleheads involved in their annual courtship rituals at the refuge. Male Buffeheads court their future mates by a vigorous exercise of head bobbing, diving, running on water, and flying over the head of the female ducks.

Male Bufflehead.

Male Bufflehead running toward female.

Male Bufflehead flying over female.

Male Bufflehead flying over female.

Male Bufflehead trying to impress female.

Sometimes, a female Bufflehead chased a male away.

Female Bufflehead chasing after male: “Get out of my sight, you … duck!”

Male Buffleheads competing for attention from female.

Male Bufflehead: “I am the greatest!”

Female with male Buffleheads paddling fast in background.

The courtship also took place underwater, perhaps with the males trying to prove they could be good foragers. I saw them dive and spend a minute or two submerged, but unfortunately was not equipped to take photos under water.

Female Buffleheads

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bufflehead, photography, postaday

Buffleheads are among the smallest ducks, one with a large head relative to the body. A small group of them was swimming near the Barnegat Lighthouse a few days ago. These ducks live mainly in North America, but may be seen in some Western European countries and Japan, but only rarely.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Suddenly they took off flying toward the open sea.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Then they began landing on the water.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Here are two of them swimming around, watching the humans and the other ducks and loons.

Female Buffleheads near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Buffleheads 2018

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bufflehead, colonial lake, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday

Buffleheads are the smallest diving ducks, no larger than 16 in (40 cm) in length. They are a joy to see as they appear to be constantly smiling and moving about, bobbing, and diving to find food. They swallow their catch of crustaceans (shrimps) and mollusks under water, and I have yet to see a photo of one Bufflehead holding food in its short, smily bill.

In past years I usually had a hard time taking good pictures of them, especially the male ones, because their eyes are often lost in the dark patches around their heads. This year sunlight was with me, most of the time, as you can see in the following photos.

Female Buffleheads at Colonial Lake.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Male Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Male Bufflehead beginning to dive.

Male Bufflehead approaching female who just dove.

Male Bufflehead and his harem.

Female Bufflehead angling for photo.

Female Bufflehead and Canada Geese.

Buffleheads

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bufflehead, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday

Buffleheads are very small ducks, about half the size of Mallards. I have found them to be difficult to photograph because of their size and colors. Females are gray brown with white patches on their cheeks. Males are white and black. In both sexes, the eyes are hard to distinguish from the dark areas surrounding them, unless there is good light, which is not always the case in winter.

A few days ago, I went to the refuge on a cold and windy day. The marshes were mostly frozen and there were only several gulls and Buffleheads. There were also very few cars, and so I was able to zoom in closer on some female Buffleheads who were actively diving for food.

Female Bufflehead.

Female Bufflehead.

Female Bufflehead diving.

There was no male Bufflehead at EBF on that day. The following photo shows one taken a few days earlier near Barnegat Lighthouse.

Male Bufflehead.

Here’s how the refuge looked on a cold day, when the highest temperature was well below freezing.

Marshes in winter.

Marsh plant in winter.

Buffleheads and Hooded Mergansers

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bufflehead, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, hooded merganser, photography, postaday

Yesterday was cloudy all day, but I went out anyway to the Edwin B Fortsythe National Wildlife Refuge near Brigantine, NJ to see what I could photograph. It turned out to be not much. Most of the photos turned out mediocre at best and had to be discarded. However, it was high tide and at two of the locations where sea water came into to the marshes I found Hooded Mergansers and Buffleheads merrily diving for food.

Buffleheads are small ducks, even smaller than Hooded Mergansers. They kept their distances, and I could only get one good shot at a pair.

Buffleheads, female on left, male on right. The male had a glossy green forehead, which would have been more colorful in better lighting.

The Hooded Mergansers were bolder, coming within 30 ft, seemingly undisturbed by the guy with a white car and a black camera.

Male Hooded Merganser. He had been diving so his crest or hood was tamped down.

There were several female Hooded Mergansers who looked quite coquettish even as they dived and resurfaced constantly.

Female Hooded Mergansers.

Female Hooded Merganser.