I got up before sunrise last weekend to head up to Ridgefield for a few hours. It had just stopped raining and was going to be cloudy in the morning, so I didn’t need to get there that early for the light, but I’m glad I did.

Near the start of the auto tour I spotted a third-year bald eagle on a distant tree, its dark eyestripe a testament to its age. It was a quiet and peaceful morning and I was in a pensive mood, so I parked the car and watched the eagle preen itself for over an hour.

Eventually a pair of green-winged teals came swimming up, stopping on a downed log to preen before returning to the water to feed. This lovely creature is the male, greenwings get their name from green patches in their wings, but its the male’s head that most attracts me.

The Eurasian teal looks similar, but the white vertical stripe is a giveaway that this teal is the American variety. Another sign is that it differentiates between football and soccer, but this is difficult to discern in the field and best used if you spot a teal in a sports bar.