Saturday, January 29, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM
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American Wigeon, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio NM, January 24, 2011
Glad to meet ya
I don't think I had ever heard of the American Wigeon until I started identifying the birds from my morning taking pictures at the Bosque last Monday.
A common and increasingly abundant duck, the American Wigeon breeds in northwestern North America and is found throughout the rest of the continent in migration and in winter. Its small bill and the male's white forehead, as well as certain aspects of nesting and feeding behavior, distinguish this species from other dabbling ducks.
Cool Facts
- The American Wigeon was formerly known as "Baldpate" because the white stripe resembled a bald man's head.
- The American Wigeon is a rare, but regular straggler to Europe where it turns up in flocks of Eurasian Wigeon.
- The American Wigeon's short bill enables it to exert more force at the bill tip than other dabbling ducks, thus permitting efficient dislodging and plucking of vegetation.
- The America Wigeon is the dabbling duck most likely to leave water and graze on vegetation in fields. However, feeding in fields on grain, such as corn, is rather rare.
- The American Wigeon's diet has a higher proportion of plant matter than the diet of any other dabbling duck.
Source: American Wigeon, Life History, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Night camp
Site 10 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM
- This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
- Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
- Click for Google street view
- Check the weather in San Antonio NM
Tools for Communicating
There is no one who can know everything anymore, because there is simply too much information for one lifetime. In the gaps, our tools grow (I choose the organic term carefully), and they allow people to unite and divide movements, to undermine leaders, to elect the unwilling to roles of leadership into which they might grow. No single person can dominate in this world for very long these days, because our tools for communicating link us like ants and we can move the world while undemocratic leaders try to hold it still. People peck the man on the big horse to death like hungry ducks if he leads them down the wrong path or takes too many liberties on the journey.
Mitch Ratcliffe, Februray 27 2003