Waterfowl in the bay

As always, Canada Geese are making a good living on the groomed lawn in the neighbourhood. In addition to three families, there appear to be several no-breeding adults on our shore.

This fresh brood of Mallards appeared on our shore. In most years we see one or two Wood Duck broods in the bay.

This evening, I was sitting at our picnic table when I heard a noise overhead. I glanced up in time to see a female Hooded merganser flying from the old, diseased Sugar Maple that shades our cottage. It's likely that the merganser's nesting in cavitity about 8 m. up, in a rotted out knothole. This certainly merits closer monitoring.

Snow day!

The warm weather that sent the salamanders marching also thawed much of our bay over the weekend. Ones and twos of Common and Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks and Mallards are foraging along the edge of the receding ice. I heard my first Eastern Phoebe in the early evening and a few hours later, a Woodcock displayed over the nearby gravel pit while an unseen flock of Common Goldeneye passed overhead. All were welcome additions to the BIGBY list, which has grown to 40 species.

We are now experiencing a late spasm of winter weather - about 5 cm of snow has fallen with more expected this afternoon - tough on the Phoebe's I suspect. There was lots of activity at the feeder all day - 17 species. Even a Robin landed in the snow among the juncos and poked around the sunflower seed hulls.

Dark-eyed Junco and American Goldfinch.

Fox Sparrow

Sparrows trying to kick up some breakfast.

Purple Finch and Pine Siskins

Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackle

European Starling

Ice-out waterfowl

Right on schedule, the winter ice is receding from Stony Lake. The Burleigh Channel, and other sections with current, are now ice-free. As the bays open up, waterfowl are staging as they wait for more northerly lakes to thaw.

Today in Dunford's Bay, the gang included, in decreasing order of abundance, Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Canada Goose, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, American Wigeon, American Black Duck and Wood Duck. On two of my last three visits, single Bald Eagles were patrolling the ice edge where winter killed fish can be expected. All can be viewed leisurely from the public landing at the bottom of Dunford Road, about 1.5 km south of the Big Cedar General Store, northeast of Burleigh Falls.

[On the Mississauga River, where it is crossed by CR 36, just east of Buckhorn, I saw my first Pied-billed Grebe of the season this afternoon.]