Got any bird pics?

Nice morning for a walk. The good............
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....the bad, and the ugly. M#f1g_D Pelicans #i_f! To spooky for a good shot. Neither the eagles nor the herons wanted to pose either.
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Encountered this female Hooded Merganser on a little rehabbed creek in Bethlehem Pa this past weekend. The creek has wild brown trout along with some rainbow stockers and appears to be fished quite often based on the number of people I encountered. Thinking she may be culling the some of the less intelligent varieties I watched while she went under and came up with some protein.
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Dinner is served and down goes another fresh crustacean. It was early PM so the light refraction was bad at this angle on this limestone creek but the carnivorous member of the Anatidae family was working it hard and was rewarded multiple times. @Cabezon would know for sure but I think this is the only “meat eater” of the bunch.
 
Encountered this female Hooded Merganser on a little rehabbed creek in Bethlehem Pa this past weekend. The creek has wild brown trout along with some rainbow stockers and appears to be fished quite often based on the number of people I encountered. Thinking she may be culling the some of the less intelligent varieties I watched while she went under and came up with some protein.
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Dinner is served and down goes another fresh crustacean. It was early PM so the light refraction was bad at this angle on this limestone creek but the carnivorous member of the Anatidae family was working it hard and was rewarded multiple times. @Cabezon would know for sure but I think this is the only “meat eater” of the bunch.
You are are correct that most adult ducks/geese are herbivores as adults. The goslings can be quite carnivorous; I have memories of squads of mallard and ring-billed duckling harvesting newly-emerged damselflies from the reeds at "Hirudinous Lake" in high summer. Among the ducks/geese, the mergansers are specialists on fish (aka, piscivores) (but with the occasional crayfish lunch as you point out). But if you translate "meat eater" into carnivore, other groups like eiders, goldeneyes, and scoters certainly focus on invertebrates as adults.
Steve
 
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I worked on a waterfowl food habits study back when I was gainfully employed. Most puddle ducks will forage selectively on invertebrates (albeit seasonally) to add protein to their diet for the rigors of migration, nesting and brood rearing. The shoveler is the exception as they forage almost exclusively on invertebrates.

During my duck hunting days, I shot a drake mallard that had 22 Gambusia (mosquito fish) and a crayfish in its crop. Mallards are well known opportunistic foragers.
 
Any idea what this little bird is?
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It was hanging around the well today as I was plumbing in the pressure tank. It was keeping to the underbrush but one time briefly posed on a downed branch. This was the least crappy pic.

EDIT: Swainson's Thrush?
 
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New set of Martin gourds with a trail cam set up to watch them. I didn't see any Martins. Mind you it might because a pair of these guys was winging back and forth over the martin nest. I can't tell if this is a prairie or peregrine falcon vs some other, I was just setting up to get a zoomed in shot when this gut took flight...any clues for ID? I have seen peregrines around here...
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New set of Martin gourds with a trail cam set up to watch them. I didn't see any Martins. Mind you it might because a pair of these guys was winging back and forth over the martin nest. I can't tell if this is a prairie or peregrine falcon vs some other, I was just setting up to get a zoomed in shot when this gut took flight...any clues for ID? I have seen peregrines around here...
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I would say kestrel.
Steve
 
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