Ducks In February!?

Yup, you read that right. Ducks in February. This winter at the bend in the river near the corner of the Perimeter Hwy. and St. Mary's Rd., a number of ducks and geese were keeping the water open for themselves and braving the cold to avoid having to migrate. Anxious to see some birds other than the regular winter residents (Ravens, Chickadees, House Sparrows, etc.) I decided to grab my camera and head over and check the reports out for myself. My travel and time was well worth it.

First cool thing was the sheer numbers with nearly 150 Mallards chilling together (quite literally). The wind was whipping down the river and I had tears pouring down my face from the wind in my eyes as I counted the birds through my binoculars. Here is a shot of the group which was packed together to rest.

Mallards resting beside the patch of open water

Who doesn't love to see Canada Geese in the winter? Whether they were early migrants or others braving the winter didn't matter... geese are geese.

Canada Geese

Another cool part of the trip was a female Common Goldeneye who was hanging out with the Mallards. I apologize for the heavily cropped picture.

Female Common Goldeneye

The personal highlight was an American Black Duck (a lifer for me) which was also part of the gang. Whoever first spotted it had a sharp eye as it blends in pretty well with the female Mallards.

American Black Duck with Mallards

Just so it's clear, the American Black Duck is the one with the yellow bill and dark eyeline. This picture makes it seem like it should be easy to differentiate as it came out pretty dark, but in reality, when viewing with your eyes it appears a lot similar in color to the female Mallards. The biggest difference is that female MALLs have an orange bill while ABDU's have yellow ones. For more information on American Black Ducks follow this link.

Overall, this little excursion produced four FOYs as well as one lifer... and it fired me up for migration; geese start returning in March and Mallards aren't too far behind. By the time the Mallards in migrating in force, everything else starts migrating too and things explode with life. Looking forward to that time!

Thanks for checking in!

Joel G.

Spring

Spring is finally here. Today I went outside to check out the possible nesting location of a pair of American Kestrels I have been observing regularly. First there were colourful clouds.

First sighting was a Killdeer in a puddle.

Then some gulls in more puddles

The first pelicans.

Redhead, Ring-Necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, Bufflehead.

In a nearby lot there must have been over 60 American Robins.

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

In the field in which the Kestrels are mainly seen are some Bison. The post picture is the cavity hole that the Kestrels seem to like and wait around.

Kestrel Cavity Post

Wow... over half way ;) There is a second pond behind the bison field which serves as the bisons' water hole. Here could be heard the nasal bep of a few Gadwall, as well as a few Mallard's and presumably more Redheads, Scaups, Ring-Necked Ducks, and Bufflehead. There were a lot of ducks. Sadly, the Kestrels did not show.

Coming back,  I got a few more shots of ducks at the pond.

Almost at our driveway again... meadowlarks!!! Needed to grab a few shots before I went inside. Here they are:

Thank you for staying with me. So concludes my massive spring post. Until next-time ;)