Bufflehead

[Shortsighted]

 Cabz mentioned the Christmas Bird Count, yet despite dedicated listening at my end, I’ve heard absolutely no reports concerning bird numbers on the CBC.  I know that in my backyard there is no activity at all.  I know that the woodlot across the street is deserted.  I know that the parks in Pickering are post-apocalyptic in their silence, despite no visible tendrils of rising smoke on the horizon or charred remains to trip over.  Then again, Putin hasn’t arrived yet.

Yes, there are geese, but are they truly Canadian?  Trump has already considered renaming them Great American geese but their tendency to congregate at the border has him a little worried.  Can anyone remember the cardinal, the blue jay and the B&W woodpecker family.  I haven’t seen any of them for quite some time.

What is the significance of the diminished bird numbers?  What does this wholesale collective absence of passerines really mean?

Sure, I can find ducks at the lakefront, sometimes in great numbers and sometimes none at all.  Scaup, Redheads, Buffleheads seem to be present as in previous winters, even a healthy number of less common ducks, such as Ruddy, Ring-necked, Canvasback and Pintail.  This could be viewed as a consolation to the absence of all the sparrows, finches and related winter passerines

Unfortunately, those less common ducks are way out in cell 3 at TTP and at the Unwin bridge area.  I visited a favourite spot and hunkered-down under cover to wait. There was very little that passed my station.  Bufflehead were making the shoreline rounds and then returning to deeper water, probably as part of cyclic routine. It’s merely an hypothesis that I can’t validate because I wasn’t there long enough.



Cautious male Bufflehead wondering what that lump under the camo is all about.

[Dr. John]

Beautiful capture of the iridescence.

[Shortsighted]

Thanks.  I like it too.  It cost me extra for that feature.  Charline isn't the only one that can play with a UV light, although she does it better.  I just thought of Rita Coolidge cuz even she thinks nobody does it better.

By the way, male and female Harlequin duck reported on the lakefront off Cranberry Marsh.  I considered going there but with imminent drizzle forecast for Durham and having only modest telephoto reach with my kit, in this low-light situation it would be disappointing even if I found them.  There is also supposed to be a single Barrows goldeneye at the same site, located among a group of Common goldeneye ducks.