appreciating the artist

I'm not sure when my eyes were opened to the great world of birds. It helps to hang out regularly with birders. Much of my life, however, I didn't really notice or really care. But that is changing. I'm getting to know and appreciate certain calls and some of the birding lingo.

Yesterday, I was able to show my birder friend, John, a new place here in Seattle. Apparently this was a place my Mom took me and my sisters when we were little. I confess, as John and I approached the site, I wondered if we'd see anything at all. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but what we "discovered" was a person's side yard, made in to a pond. (But it's truly much more than that as this article records.) At first glance, it looked like just a few ducks were hanging out there...but then, I'm telling you people, more and more different varieties became clear.
Here is the list:

-Northern pintail
-American wigeon
-Northern shoveler (big ol bill on this one!)
-Cinnamon teal (love this name!)
-Green-winged teal
-wood duck (needs a different name for how glorious it is!)
-redhead
-mallard
-hooded merganser
-ruddy duck
-and what we called a Eurasian Wood duck

(oh, and not spotted yesterday,
but last weekend I spied a burrows goldeneye. Very fabulous as well!)

This particular duck, pictured above, was spectacular. Seriously. I have never seen a more glorious duck. It's a duck people. But the colors so take my breath away that I hardly know how to describe it. Different sites call it different things. This picture was titled the mandarin wood duck. Other places called it a European or Eurasian wood duck. I'll call it Fabulous!

It drives me to appreciate the creator and artist and declare again, "God, you do such a great job!!!"