I went for a walk in Sam Smith Park late yesterday afternoon and found a pretty decent selection of waterfowl. There were 9 White-winged Scoters: 4 in the mouth of the harbour, and 5 off the southernmost headland. I only found one Horned Grebe (in winter plumage). I thought there might be more by now. There were at least 6 Red-necked Grebes as well. There were hundreds of scaup, mainly well offshore, and I managed to find one Lesser among the 30 or so that were close to shore. There was a pair of Redheads close to shore and several Male Red-Breasted Mergansers as well.
Most of the habour area is still frozen over, so there's not a lot of protected open water yet.
There were 4 Red-winged Blackbirds in the trees by the pond, and I had a Killdeer calling as it flew overhead.
Still no Robins, but I met a couple who described a robin-like bird that sounded very much like a Towhee.
Also, as I write this, there are still 4 Redpolls at my feeder along with Goldfinches, House Finches, and Chickadees. Still no House Sparrows or Starlings
BB
