Redhead grass mats

Wave after wave of redheads boiled off the water ahead of the boat as we raced across the glassy surface of the Laguna Madre just off the south Texas coast. Driven from their feeding grounds, thousands of the birds lifted into the air in great, milling swarms, only to settle once again on the surrounding flats. Watching the spectacle in awe, we were privileged to be witnessing one of the world's greatest concentrations of wintering redheads, especially in an area open to public waterfowling. Our host, research scientist Bart Ballard of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, cut the throttle and reversed the engine as we approached a palmetto-brushed blind, staked in the shallows at the edge of a small island dotted with scrub oaks.

After the canvasback, the redhead is the second largest member of North America's pochards, a family of diving ducks that also includes scaup and ring-necked ducks. As its name indicates, the redhead is named for the drake's striking reddish brown head. The hen is much less conspicuous, having mostly pale brown plumage. Both sexes have a white belly and blue-gray bill marked at the end with a white ring and black tip.