Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Sad Little Duck


“The Sad Little Duck”

The attractive little fellow pictured is a King Eider duck. One of the 258 species of birds that spend the summer in the Arctic, giving birth to new generations. The unfortunate truth this year is the birds returned to their birth place a little too early. The North Slope is still covered in ice and snow and is very slow to turn into the normal spring the birds are accustomed to. This photo was taken yesterday and most likely he has already fallen victim to the hunger pains of the Raven or perhaps a red, or arctic fox. Mother Nature can be cruel and in the arctic it is demonstrated on a regular basis.

1 comment:

The Giraffe Head Tree said...

Poor little thing. Interestingly, we were just watching episodes of Planet Earth that other day and there was a piece on the Arctic and Antarctica and its creatures and there was the King Eider flying in. Such beautiful creatures, these ducks. If only they could access The Weather Channel to plan their journey, but alas. How ya doin?"