Feathered Friday - Birds Near the Water

Here are a few more spring birds in Illinois for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100

I caught this cute little chickadee on an early morning walk while foraging for garlic mustard to make a pizza. This little guy sat still long enough for me to position the camera between all the branches of the tree it was sitting in. I got a few dud shots where a branch was right in front of his face. Fortunately one shot turned out.

On the lake nearby the path I saw this little pie billed grebe diving under. The instant they see you they dive under for around 30 seconds then pop up out of the water quite a distance away. Fortunately I got this shot before it swam to a bad distance for my camera.

These red wing black birds are always found near the waters edge. They build their nests in the trees right on the edge of the lake. This guy seemed to be showing off to a female on a nearby branch. I am not sure if he is blinking in this shot... I've never seen their eyes that bright with a highlight on them.

This is the female red wing blackbird ignoring the flexing from the male nearby. The lake made a nice neutral background for this shot.

I also saw this somewhat rare sight. A male Northern Shoveler. Sadly he was swimming in between the reeds and I only was able to get a distant kind of blurry shot of him and my camera messed up a couple other shots by focusing on the reeds instead lol.

Here's a strange nest, I wonder what type of bird makes these. It almost looks woven together. It was around the size of a softball too.

This tree swallow was tame enough for me to approach and get a few good closeup shots of him. Here he is looking at me skeptically.

Now back to gazing at potential insects to eat.

Now for a strange looking mallard. Notice the white patchy breast.

The white breast indicates a domestic breed of mallard called a Duclair. I was wondering why he was quacking at me and not as shy as most wild mallards. I suspect he flew over to this lake from a farm nearby to meet the wild mallards.

For comparison here's a wild mallard with a reddish brown breast and a nice white stripe on the neck.
That's all for this #featheredfriday happy hunting.