Pets and Animals |

Close Encounters: Tundra swans, redhead ducks spotted in North Carolina

Mike Weirich sent photos of tundra swans that have returned to Knotts Island Bay in North Carolina for the winter.

Jeff Lewis sent a photo of a large group of redhead ducks and a few tundra swans gathered together to feed and rest in one of the impoundments at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Howard Horwitz spotted a great blue heron with its reflection in the water while walking in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. “The coloring is more accurate in the reflection as the sun bleached the bird itself,” Horwitz wrote. “It was a treat to get the double view.”

Paul Simms got a photo of an eagle that was going on a morning jog along the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry Towers in Virginia Beach.

Connie Owen sent photos of a hooded merganser and a large flock of wigeons that have been hanging around in a freshwater pond for weeks in the Robinhood Forest area of Virginia Beach.

Woody Stephens sent photos of male and female hooded mergansers that he spotted in a Buchanan Creek tributary in Virginia Beach. “They seem to have taken up in our creek this year,” Stephens wrote.

Steve Daniel photographed a colorful feral Muscovy duck on the bridge at the Indian Lakes Foundation Community Center in Virginia Beach. Truly wild Muscovy ducks occur in southern Texas and farther south. Domesticated and feral Muscovy ducks are sometimes seen in urban parks mixing with other birds.

Michael Schimmel photographed male and female mallards that have returned to Witt Park in Virginia Beach.

Carmen Scherrer has a hummingbird that showed up at her feeder in the Chic’s Beach neighborhood in Virginia Beach. “Last year, he stayed all winter too. He is feeding from the (camellia) flowers every day,” Scherrer wrote. “I know it is the same one because he waits in the same little branch by the patio, and he perches in a certain tomato cage when it rains for his showers, cleaning his feathers.”

Ankie Keizer spotted a kingfisher at Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. “First, he was hiding,” Keizer wrote. “But after that he was all willing to be in the picture.”

Reuben Rohn had a rare sighting of an ash-throated flycatcher at the Harris Teeter Retention Pond in Virginia Beach, a rare migrant here. Ash-throated flycatchers live in the western part of the country in dry scrub, open woodlands and deserts.

Ed Obermeyer had swarms of orioles visit his feeder after the big freeze in the Castleton area of Virginia Beach. “They loved the mealworms and the bird bath heater,” Obermeyer wrote. “So stoked!”

Benjamin Gerber photographed a ruby-crowned kinglet perched on a branch in his backyard in the Western Branch neighborhood of Chesapeake. Ruby-crowned kinglets breed in the northern states and migrate south for the winter.

John Gibbs photographed a mourning dove that was all puffed up from the cold in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake. The dove was “sunning itself while perched on a redbud tree during freezing temperatures,” Gibbs wrote.

Erik Moore photographed a family of river otters frolicking on the river bank in a swamp on the North Landing River in Virginia Beach.

Vickie Shufer, wildfood@cox.net

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If you go

What: Moore To See Photo Expeditions

When: Year-round tours

Where: Private boat ecotours on the North Landing River, Back Bay, Northwest River and Currituck Sound

Cost: $125/hour for up to six people

More information: (757) 401-2583; eriknmoore@gmail.com; www.mooretosee.com/tours