Today we spent the better part of the day birding along the Niagara River (Ontario side, along the Niagara Parkway). It was a perfect day for this - heavy winds had the waterfowl close to shore for shelter ... and the sun came out! We also briefly detoured to the area around Eastport Drive in Hamilton for more waterfowl, but it was the same things as on the river.
Nice amount of waterfowl seen. Abundant were BUFFLEHEAD, SCAUP (GREATER AND LESSER?), COMMON MERGANSER (tens of thousands), CANADA GEESE, RING-BILLED and HERRING GULLS, MALLARDS. Also a surprising number of TUNDRA SWANS (hundreds - an early sign of spring?!) Also seen in decent numbers were COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED BREASTED MERGANSER, HOODED MERGANSER, CANADA GEESE, REDHEAD, and CANVASBACK. We saw a few AMERICAN COOT, and BLACK DUCKS.
This Herring Gull found a nice treat in this frog, but soon after this photo, lost it to another gull!
Nice shot of a flying waterfowl flock (mostly Bufflehead)
Sleeping raft of Scaup
Many available chunks of ice were filled with gulls!
Nice Red-Breasted Merganser
Flying female Canvasback
Another hopeful sign of spring: Ring-Necked Ducks!
Spring Signs continued ... lots of Tundra Swans!
Nice raft of Canvasback and Redhead (good for comparison)
Many of the ice sheets on the river also held Canada Geese
Common Merganser (the name was fitting-we saw tens of thousands it seemed)
Hooded Merganser (we got all 3 Mergansers today!)
Another nice close Tundra Swan closeup
Closeup of a Scaup
Flying Scaup (in Hamilton)
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