Bog Whisperer: New visitor to the area - a Green-Winged Teal duck

A pair of green-winged Teal ducks at Ronald Bog
Photo by Martin DeGrazia

The ducks are Green-Winged Teals. I don't think I have ever come across one of these before. If I had known what I was photographing I would have taken more pictures of them.

--Martin DeGrazia

Green-Winged Teal duck at Ronald Bog
Photo by Martin DeGrazia

The green is vivid on the male. I went through my photos and I've never heard of these before. I found a few other unpublished photos of unusual ducks, which I will start publishing. We have a lot of the brown ducks and the wood ducks.

I saw duck decoys long before I ever saw a photo of an actual wood duck. I was shocked. I had always assumed that the lurid coloring was some fetish that duck hunters used to lure ducks and not a representation of an actual bird.

--Diane Hettrick