Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Common Goldeneye

This Common goldeneye photograph was taken in the fog at Osceola Island, just downstream from TVA’s South Holston Dam. Size is deceptive. The goldeneye is smaller than a mallard and easily bigger than bufflehead, which is also black and white. It is a winter duck in these parts. The cheek patch of white is what really gives the goldeneye away. Bufflehead seem to zip around a lot amongst the more sedate goldeneye and mallard.

Roy Knispel was fortunate that the goldeneye stuck closer to the dam than most of the rest of the flocks. A very heavy fog was just beginning to lift that morning otherwise this picture would just have been all white.
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