Ducks of the Week

No sunny day would be complete without going to the outlet and seeing what waterfowl was present! These are Scaup but I liked the pattern on the water most!

The face of the outlet changes every day. The weather has been substantially warmer so I figured that there would be no ice on the lake side but expected to see some ice still on the bay side. The bay side was as I expected but the lake side was clogged with floating ice. My dear husband explained what was happening -- the wind. I hadn't been able to figure out why there was more ice on these warmer days as there was less ice overall! Now it all makes sense. As the temps warm, more ice is left adrift from the frozen lakeside and gets bogged down in the relatively narrow outlet channel! So unlike before, all my bird pictures are on the bay side today. There were no birds on the lake side at all -- just lots and lots of ice.

The squawking and wing flapping was pretty intense yesterday! Spring is definitely coming and thoughts of love are in the air....

These were two very lazy sleeping red headed ducks. You can really see them at a distance when it is sunny!

This is looking out toward Lake Ontario.

I couldn't help myself with this flock of mallards - there were about 25 altogether in the group -- almost all male and bright and shiny in the sunlight.

Here is a closeup of one. They are a pretty duck but we get to see them so frequently, we don't appreciate them!

This was another of the male Red Breasted Mergansers. There were a number of them mingling with the Scaups yesterday.

Of course there were Oldsquaws and this is the male as close as I have gotten one and then two females below.

Girlfriends...