Finally.

     In moving from mid-Brooklyn to the deep South of Brooklyn, my regular birding patches have changed. The Salt Marsh Nature Center and Floyd Bennett Field are my closest spots, with the Salt Marsh being the easiest to get to. So when the rain finally stopped today, I hopped on my bike and peddled to Marine Park and got to do some birding.
     This is the time of year where with each outing you hope to catch that next new bird, coming into the northern climes on its migration northward. But at the Salt Marsh there has been one bird who has just done a darn good job of avoiding me every visit I made there since December. I don't consider this bird a nemesis bird (that title belongs to the Lincoln's Sparrow), but this individual in particular, perhaps.
     I walked the trails, braved the cold gusty winds, and hoped to see something cool - whether it be a bird, a muskrat, or some interesting behaviors. I saw two of the three...

It's not everyday you find a red breasted merganser walking in the mud.
As diving ducks, their legs are set far back so they are a bit front heavy and walk a bit more upright than your average duck.

It also appears this bird may have once broken part of its lower mandible, giving it an appearance of having an overbite.

The osprey pair were busy today. Battling the gusty winds during the lowering tide for some muddy grasses to line their nest with.
I love how they even have shrubbery growing from their nest...

The one in the nest was doing a lot of the actual nesting. I feel that one may be the female.

This looks like an attempt to mate-- but it is really just an attempt to land, fighting the wind.
Especially because the one on the post, I think, is the male.
Even he looks a bit puzzled by this maneuver.

FINALLY.
Literally threw my hands in the air, to celebrate seeing this duck.

Came into the marsh. It was not there.
Leaving.
HELLO.
Eurasian Wigeon.

Everytime I visit the Marsh- it is seen that same day. But never when I am present. So this was a happy sight.
Because as the weather warms, soon the wigeons will all be a winter memory.

Also, I like birds who have the same color plumage as me.

:-D

Stunning... as it eats up all that marshy, sludgy, deliciousness.

There were American Wigeon too...

But, I just couldn't avert my eyes and camera from this stunning hunk of marsh slime eating duck.