Hello Hello feathered friends and all sunny people of the Hive
Sometimes I take pictures knowing where I am going to use them, but not sure when!
This is the case yesterday. I was actually out walking with the camera and it was a gorgeous day.
Let me rephrase that, it was a gorgeous day at around 2.00 pm on Saturday 18th May as you can see from the picture above.
I was on my way to the harbour to see if there were any interesting boats for me to photograph.
But we are to talk about birds not boats!
What do you see, I did notice some birds, there looked to be five of them, so zoomtyzoom we go ....
Oh look they were black and white. A common combination for birds around here.
Let's go in for another closer look ...
Look at them sitting on their chubby black bums!
Some of you will know exactly what birds these are...
Some might not.
They do remind me of nuns with their colouring!
They are male Eider ducks. Some of you might have heard of Eiderdown pillows and quilts. Well yes they come from the Eider duck.
I think the males have a strange head. Even though it is the same size as the female's head you can't really see the eyes and head looks like a weird star wars helmet!
But who was looking on jealously...?
None other than Percy fluffing pigeon!
What was he doing down at the beach....
Hopefully just being nosey!
So a wee bit about Eider ducks... courtesy of the RSPB fact sheet
The Eider is the UK's heaviest and fastest flying duck. It's a true seaduck, rarely found away from coasts. Its reliance on coastal shellfish for food has brought it into conflict with mussel farmers. Eiders are very sociable and usually stay close to shore, riding the swell in a sandy bay or strung out in long lines beyond the breaking waves. It is an Amber List species because of its winter concentrations.
Take note of how they march, you are about to see a fluffy marching picture in a wee minute.
So that was the male Eider ducks at the bottom of the picture.
I saw further birds up the rocks... What were they?
Let's go and investigate.
There you see a brown Eider duck and that is the female. She is surrounded by males, isn't that always the case!
But look who else is there .....
Oh fluff me, but two of the most cute wee ducklings you will see.
No ugly ducklings with this pair!
The Eider is the UK's biggest and fastest duck and you can see how plump these boys are!
Be prepared for some fluffy cuteness!
Remember I said about the marching, the wee one on the right is starting early and I am sure will master the Eider March!
Look how teeny he is compared to the plump adult male.
But can you see mummy Ellen Eider peering down to see what wee Eddie Eider was upto in this pic?
The Eider family...
When you get a head on view of the dad he looks quite broad like a bulldog!
Mum meanwhile loves showing off her baby ducklings!
Mum meanwhile was flexing her wings in order to put all the boys in their place.
Never mess with a momma they say!
The little ones meanwhile were having no problems swimming....
They were taking to it like a duck to water!
The handsome couple
I thought I would show you a male and female side by side so you could see the difference.
It really is so hard to see the eyes of the make but they have the same head and bill.
I do hope you liked this little parade of the Eider duck clan!
This post though, is an entry for this week's Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 166 hosted by the wonderful @nelinoeva in the fantastic Feathered Friends community on Hive.
And I shall pick this one for the entry
They are cute birds but for me the only one I could pick was this picture of Fluffing Eider cuteness!
What do you think? Was that your favourite?
Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day!
All images and ramblings are from me, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo unless otherwise stated..
DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND DO IT OFTEN
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@tengolotodo May 19th 2024 (7 - May Premium 2 VR)
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The ducklings are never ugly, they are always sweet. And these two are so fluffy and sooooo cute.🙂
I must admit I haven't seen Eider ducks and I learned something new today.
Thank you for your lovely post and entry.
It is the first time that I had seen them there and rarely seen in this number.
Quite chuffed I had my camera so could get some closeups, but the wee ducklings, darn they are fluffy and cute!
Thanks Neli and wishing you a great week.
Great pictures! I hadn't seen an Eider duck before, so I learned something. The males do have a weird heard though!
It has been ages since I had see a male. So to see so many in the distance I just thought they were seagulls.
Then I got up close and was surprised. The head though is weird hehe!
Wow.. so many feathered friends.. the black and white are cute..
Hehe you like the males huh, they are the black and white ones. I still the two tiny ducklings are the cutest.
So cute, thank you so much for showing❣️
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Thank you so much @kvinna , they really are cute wee fluffers!
Hope things are well over your side of the water
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Yes, thank you so much and what about you?
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Cute little fluffettes!
Very interesting that there a whole bunch of males, but just a single female, as far as I can tell. Wonder of that's typical for the species, or maybe all the females are on their nests... it's spring, after all!
=^..^=
I think all in all I saw three different females. Yes I do wonder now if there tend to be more males than females!
Fluffettes oh I like that!
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See that beak? Looks exactly like an illustration over here in Nigeria that depicts a woman who gossips a lot! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wow. The difference is mind blowing. I was thinking the female would just have a slimmer head but no… made different she is!!
That’s som fluffing cuteness though. Nearly made my heart burst … lol. How you get these pictures? I will never know. So accurate… ❤️❤️❤️
Remember I said about the marching, the wee one on the right is starting early. 😂😂, practice makes perfect. Cute pictures friend. Thanks for exposing me to some fun wildlife stories and images.
I've never seen an eider duck before. They're very interesting looking
Forgive me but I can't help but imagine these delicious goodness well seasoned in my plate, especially the fat chubby ones.
Bet they'd taste nice. Almost everything is food for us at this part of the world so again, please forgive me but the birds are cute too.
Amazingly how distinct the female looked from the male, if I had seen them without reading this, would have they were different species.
More so, I can't help but notice the ducklings looking exactly like their mothers, are they females or that's how they all at infancy?
An enjoyable read, you really carried us along with you.
Came in from #dreemport
#dreemerforlife
The males looks more beautiful, the female looks like these local hens in Nigeria, lolz.. wondering why there are more male ducks than the female over there
Overall, the photographs are beautiful....looks like you are a professional photographer?
#dreemerforlife
This is actually the first time I'm seeing a eider duck, they look so good!
I know ducklings are always beautiful. But, this is my first time of seeing this kind.
I love them! So beautiful!
Always a #dreemerforlife