And Now a Word From Our Swimmers (and Divers)...

It was a sunny day and the birds seem to be enjoying it!

The sun actually came out today and so it was time to trek down to the outlet and see if any new birds had come to visit or I could get better photos of some of the familiar ones. As the temps have been fairly warm (for here -- read 30 degrees instead of 20), the outlet was pretty well thawed and all the usual ducks were there!! The only one I didn't see today was the Common Goldeneye but instead I did see a Ring Necked Duck and that is the first time I have spotted one this year. The above picture is of the Ring Necked Duck. I did see some way off in the distance last year. I also spotted quite a few White Winged Scoters but they were too far away to get good pictures.

There were many, many Greater Scaups out there today, both male and female in rather a large flock.

The Oldsquaws were of course there in force as well. There were also a lot of females and males. Look at the long tail feathers that distinguish this duck.

Here is a closeup of the Oldsquaw male.

There were of course, lots of the mute swans. Unfortunately, people have been feeding the birds which encourages them to be a bit aggressive.

These two Greylag Geese swam right by me and I loved their orange feet.

There were lots of Redheads out today and with the sun shining (a little bit), you could actually spot the red gleaming in the distance. Cool...

The gulls have finally returned and I don't know what that means. They have been absent for the most part of the past couple of weeks. Something irritated them here and they all decided to flee. They are all the very common Ring Billed Gull.

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Looking out over the winter lake. There are places that look like little volcanoes where the water has come up through the ice.
This is the Red Breasted Merganser and you can really see his irridescent green head in this shot. Much different than how they looked in Florida!

This is the pathway I walk down to see all the different kinds of ducks.