Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Maryland

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Green Winged Teal (Anas crecca)
New Jersey

This is the second image of a six image set I caught as this male took off. The next image is the completion of this wing stroke. The third image and the first one I posted was the second full wing stroke.(note that I left three images out, I didn't want to get to boring with this set)
So this Teal took exactly two full wing strokes and went from sitting on the water to flight in one second or less.

Keep in mind that Green Winged Teal do not need to get running starts to fly like many duck species. They are smaller and more agile ducks, I've even watched a group of them take off and then bank and turn direction much the same way shorebirds do.

The golden reflections in water may vary slightly from image to image do to being processed individually but are otherwise unenhanced. I only wish I had been standing when I captured this set, that way I could have kept the dark brown bank of the pond out of the images. I kind of like these early morning golden reflections.

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Green Winged Teal (Anas crecca)
New Jersey

This is the final image in this Teals first wing stroke, it took exactly two full wing strokes to get airbourne and it went from sitting to the air in exactly one second or less. I was lucky enough to capture exactly six images in this sequence before he was to far out of the frame.

Green-winged Teal are about the same body size (length) as Buffleheads, but weigh less and have slightly longer wings.
They are also dabbling ducks and not divers like the Bufflehead.

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Green Winged Teal (Anas crecca)
New Jersey

I can't seem to find much information on duck species take off times, there is plenty of clocked flight speeds and they show Red Breasted Mergansers as being the fastest in flight with one supposedly traveling 100 mph. Supposedly Teal are on the slower side in the 40-50 mph range.
I will say that this species seems to me a as one of the fastest out of the water. From my observations they usually launch diagonally right out of the water. This male had two complete wing strokes when this image was captured, both within less than a second and as you can see here he is in the air now. .

I caught six images of this male as he took flight before loosing him out of the frame. I'll blame old man reflexes on that part, although I was out on the ground and my fingers were frozen as well..
From the first wing extension to this last image of him fully inside the frame was one second max according to exif data.

This image is number six, I will show two more in the coming days.

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Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima)
New Jersey

When the tides wash up over the jetty, they often leave puddles. I noticed these Sandpipers coming to this one to bathe. This is almost always followed by a quick upward flight to dry off, shown here...
Competition at this puddle was fierce at times, occasionally a little squabble would break out when one of the birds took to long in the puddle. It was entertaining to watch and photograph.

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