the Greater Scaup is one of the most numerous wintering ducks in our area and great “rafts” form in favoured localities. I estimated about 4,000 at the park this morning:

Greater Scaup breed along the Hudson Bay coast of Ontario north and west to Alaska. Mollusks and plant material are both important components of their diet.

Here is a photo I had taken previously of a male:

Curiously, of these 4,000, one female had decided not to rest in the raft but to look for food among other ducks. As you see, females look nothing like the males.

Other birds:

Park scenes:

NATURE POETRY

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.                  – Walt Whitman (1819-92)

Miles Hearn