Here is what my grandfather, ornithologist Dr. J. Murray Speirs said about Red-breasted Mergansers: They always strike me as a high-spirited fowl, “having a ball”, diving, chasing, flying to a new fishing area, “necking”, and having great fun. “Anthropomorphism” you may object, but just watch them and see for yourself.
A small group of mostly males were doing just that this morning at Ashbridge’s Bay:
The storm of a few weeks ago left amazing natural ice sculptures along the shore here:
The tree is a Siberian Elm:
Today’s group on this 3 degree, windy and overcast morning:
As usual the chickadees made their presence known:
Other birds:
Glaucous Gulls are mainly white gulls with heavy, long bills. They breed in the Arctic and winter chiefly on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. A few come into our area to winter with Herring Gulls.
Species list: mallard, gadwall, bufflehead, long-tailed duck, lesser scaup, common goldeneye, common merganser, red-breasted merganser, red-tailed hawk, ring-billed gull, herring gull. great black-backed gull, glaucous gull, mourning dove, black-capped chickadee, northern cardinal, dark-eyed junco, American tree sparrow. (18 species)
NATURE POETRY
You can never do a kindness too soon,
for you never know how soon it will be too late. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)