{"id":10196,"date":"2022-03-31T08:54:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T15:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=10196"},"modified":"2023-08-17T13:29:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T20:29:48","slug":"2022-01","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2022-01\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 &#8211; 01 Common Goldeneye"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye-1024x900.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye-1024x900.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye-768x675.jpg 768w, https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2022-1-Common-Goldeneye.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Many birds seem to have names that really don\u2019t suit them. Some that come to mind, bald eagle (lots of feathers on that head), sapsucker (doesn\u2019t suck sap), oyster catchers (doesn\u2019t eat oysters) and killdeer (doesn\u2019t even come close to deer). Then, there\u2019s this perfectly named duck. Goldeneye! I see these birds all winter long, sometimes in great rafts with other ducks, sometimes alone, but even from a distance that \u2018golden eye\u2019 stands out easily against a dark green iridescent head. Easy to spot because these are not small ducks. If you held one up, wings outstretched, it would span from your arm pit well out past your fingertips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Common goldeneyes nest beside small lakes to the north, surrounded by conifers and hardwood forests. They often use pileated woodpecker holes that they redecorate with suit them. Here, they raise a family and feed on insects by diving in the lakes. That\u2019s right, insects \u2013 and they seem to prefer lakes without fish (that also eat insects). In winter, goldeneyes migrate to quiet and shallow marine bays, places common in the Salish Sea. Here they dive and feed on small fish, crustaceans and shellfish. I\u2019ve seen them in small flocks just quietly floating together, then, seemingly on a collective signal, they all dive together. It\u2019s probably a strategy that aims to startle prey into fleeing one bird &#8211; and then the neighbor grabs it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larry Eifert paints and does water-stuff in Port Townsend. His large-scale nature murals can be seen in many national parks across America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-medium-font-size is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many birds seem to have names that really don\u2019t suit them. Some that come to mind, bald eagle (lots of feathers on that head), sapsucker (doesn\u2019t suck sap), oyster catchers (doesn\u2019t eat oysters) and killdeer (doesn\u2019t even come close to deer). Then, there\u2019s this perfectly named duck. Goldeneye! I see these birds all winter long, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2022-01\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2022 &#8211; 01 Common Goldeneye<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11521,"parent":6453,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10196","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11522,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10196\/revisions\/11522"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}