Backyard and Beyond

Extreme in the sense of the abilities of my camera, that is. These birds were all seen on the piers or de facto bays between the piers at Brooklyn Bridge Park.A comparison of the size difference between Ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) on the left and a Herring gull (Larus argentatus) on the right.A Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) in non-breeding plumage does not have any red on the throat. The Common Loon is also to be found in our waters; it’s a bigger bird with a thicker, straighter bill that doesn’t have the slight up-turn you can sort of see here in the Red-throated’s bill. When I was in Scotland some years ago, there was a wee bit of excitement about “divers,” which turned out to be loons, who dive deep for their fishy prey.This Red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator), being a kind of duck, flaunts its breeding plumage during the winter. “Red” of course is a bit an abused word in the common name of birds. In many cases, it is more of a brick or russet color, as here.