Trumpeter swans at Vadnais Lake

While photographing the ducks at Vadnais Lake the day before they closed the road I also got some nice trumpeter swan pics.
Although trumpeter swans were once hunted almost to extinction they have made a great comeback in Minnesota and Wisconsin and we see them fairly frequently up here.
A lot of the trumpeters that we see though are tagged which tends to make them a bit less photogenic. It was cool that most of the swans hanging out at Vadnais Lake lately were not tagged.

This means that this group was probably from up north in Canada and stopped at Vadnais on their way migrating through.It was nice to photograph them with out the ugly tags, which are attached around their necks. I got some real nice shots including this one that was sleeping in some very pretty light.

Another trip to Vadnais Lake before the road closes

The road at Vadnais Lake closed for the season last week but the day before it closed I took a trip over and got some more shots of waterfowl on the lake.

There were still a few ring-necked ducks hanging around. There are not as many as there was a couple weeks ago, but on this trip they were in a lot closer to shore so I snapped a couple of pics.

There were also some redheaded ducks still around. This time around I got an opportunity to photograph a male redhead A new comer to Vadnais Lake were the canvas backs.

Canvas backs are a larger diving duck that are found only in North America. They breed from Alaska to Manitoba and south from Minnesota to California.

During the breeding season the canvasback inhabit wetland habitats. The nests are formed of grass and feathers in the marsh. They typically lay 7 to 10 eggs which the female will incubate for around 24 days.

Canvasbacks eat aquatic vegetation such as pond weed, water lilly and their favorite wild celery. They also will eat mollusks, insects, and small crustaceans and fish.

Canvas backs are highly migratory. They spend their winters on the Great Lakes, Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts and in Mexico.

Canvasbacks are currently on the decline due mostly to loss of wetland habitat in their breeding range.

Other wildlife at Vadnais Lake

I did see some other birds and wildlife at Vadnais Lake other then the waterfowl. One day as I was shooting the ducks a bald eagle flew over head.
In the woods north of the lake I spotted a golden-crowned kinglet. I wanted to get some better pics but it flew up a trail. Unfortunately the trails in the woods by the lake can only be used for cross country skying. This seems like such a waste to me especially during the summer. It is really strange that they do not even allow hikers on the trails. Each visit I usually spot a muskrat swimming along near the shoreline.

Common goldeneye and hooded merganser hybrid at Vadnais Lake

One of the more interesting birds that was swimming around Vadnais Lake appears to be a common goldeneye and hooded merganser hybrid.
This bird was pretty confusing at first.
But I did a bit of research on the web and found that others have seen this mix and there are pictures here and there and all pretty much look the same.

It was swimming around with a group common goldeneye.In a different group of goldeneye I did spot a hooded merganser female. She seemed to be hanging out with the goldeneye.So it seems that the two species do socialize.

Common goldeneye at Vadnais Lake

Another duck that has been visiting Vadnais Lake is the common goldeneye.
Common goldeneye are diving ducks and forage mostly underwater. They typically feed on aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish.
They breed in northern boreal forests worldwide. They like small lakes and ponds, preferably with out fish that compete for food, in Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia, and Russia.

The common goldeneye is a cavity nester. They will usually nest in large cavities made by broken tree limbs or pileated woodpeckers. They will also use nesting boxes. Female goldeneyes typically lay 7 to 10 eggs which they incubate for 28 to 32 days. Sometimes they will lay their eggs in the nests of other females. They have even been known to lay eggs in the nest of another type of duck.

The young goldeneye leave the nest a day or two after hatching. The mother leads them to the water where they are already able to feed themselves. They take 8 to 9 weeks to fledge but the mother typically abandons them before they can fly. Some times when a mother abandons her brood too early or there is a territorial dispute chicks will join another females brood. These large mixed broods are called a creche.

Male common goldeneye usually leave the females a week or two into the incubation of the eggs and begins a molt migration. They typically head north to larger lakes, rivers and bays. The winter migration usually begins later then most of the other types of ducks. They do not typically migrate far south, often they stay as far north as they can find open water.

Northern pintail at Vadnais Lake

Over the past few weeks it has been pretty grey and overcast here in Minnesota, which is pretty typical for the winter months here. On the few occasions that we have seen some sun I have taken advantage of the opportunity and gone out and done some birding. One of the locations that I have been birding at quite a bit recently is Vadnais Lake. Vadnais Lake is on the north east side of the Twin Cities and is not very far from where I work. The lake is split into two halves with a one way road running through the middle. The road is controlled by St Paul Water Management and is used for fishing, hiking, cycling, and birding.

The first few weeks in November the lake was also a staging area for ducks and other waterfowl migrating south to stop, eat and rest up for the remained of their journey. This presented Twin Cities birders with good close up looks at birds who tended to stay near the shoreline of the road.

One of the ducks that I got to see was the northern pintail.

Northern Pintails typically nest in Alaska, Canada, and the central United States as well as northern Europe and Asia. They build a nest on the ground made of grass, leaves and down. The nest is hidden by tall grass or brush and is typically not near the water. The clutch consists of 3 to 12 greenish eggs.

In the winter the Northern Pintail migrate south to the southern US, Central America and the very north edge of South America, southern Europe, Asia and Northern Africa on the Eurasia side.

When I visited the Bosque del Apache, back in February, there were pintails all over but at lake Vadnais there was only one pintail. He was grouped in with a small flock of mallards.

This makes some sense since both mallards and pintails are dabbling ducks. This means that they usually eat plants off the bottom of the lake, river, stream, pond or pool by tipping their tails up into the air and submerging their necks and heads. Other dabblers include wigeons, shovelers, gadwall, and true teals. Swans and geese also typically feed in the dabbling style.