What a Surprise - Northern Birds!

Since the weather was warming today, I decided it would be a good time to get down to Lake Ontario and take some pictures of the ice formations which can be pretty spectacular this time of year. Here are bunches of people just hanging out on the frozen Irondequoit Bay. The temps were close to 50 so there was a lot of melting going on but no one sunk while I was there -- there were tons of cars and I felt like I was in Minnesota - yah.

Trying to get to abovesaid ice formations was not possible!! I felt like I was back at Crater Lake, climbing piles of snow to get the best view. My big surprise was that there were all kinds of birds just sitting there on the lake waiting to have their pictures taken!! These were quite a distance away on the Lake, but I believe they are Ring Necked Ducks (the females).

This was my first sighting and they didn't cooperate by getting very close. This is a duck called an Oldsquaw. I saw many of these. They have a very long tail which you can see in the back.

These I believe are Lesser Scaups -- a male and a female. They were not hanging out with a flock but were in amongst the swans near the outlet.

These I believe are the male Ring Necked Ducks which have a ring around their bill and the white eye patch. It was difficult to discern these different breeds but hopefully I haven't screwed up too badly!

This was looking south over the frozen bay. On the other side of the street is Lake Ontario.

These are our year-round residents -- the mute swan which is an invasive species from Europe. We saw lots of these in Switzerland on the fresh water lakes. They may be invasive but they are beautiful I think. This is the outlet where the Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario. The bridge crossing this intersection is only open from November through April 1 because of boat traffic. When we first moved here, there was no opening between the bay and the lake!

This is another view of the swans. I have taken pictures of these in the spring nesting on their new eggs. They build nests in the marshy areas along the lakes and bays around here.