The same green-winged teal as before, now swimming above his reflection. He and his mate stayed in the area feeding for quite a while before swimming a little further off to feed. Teal are noticeably smaller than mallards but larger than the little diving ducks like ruddies and bufflehead, so even with a telephoto lens they have to approach pretty close for a frame filling shot like this one.

When looking for wildlife, its tough sometimes to know whether you should just stay in the same spot for a while and see what comes to you, or if you should move around and see what you can find. Often times it comes down to my mood and my instinct, particularly at a place like Ridgefield that I’ve visited many times.

On this morning, I was reflective and content to sit and see what happened, and I’m thankful that I did as the teal were not in sight when I first stopped to watch the eagle. The following morning, however, I was quite restless and spent most of the time on the move.

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.