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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