Watery Wednesday: Crex Waterfowl

As the spring progresses many of the waterfowl have already begun to return to the north country. So far besides mallards and Canadian geese, which stay in the area all winter long, I have also seen many types of ducks return.

Many of these birds that I photographed at Crex Meadows, on one of my last trips there last October, have probably already returned to the area. I have already spotted bufflehead ducks, like the female pictured above, on the ponds near Black Dog Lake.

I have also seen American coot around Black Dog Lake as well as Wood Lake and Whitewater State Park.

Although coots look like ducks they are actually part of the rail family. Because of this they have toed feet instead of webbed feet like ducks do.

Canvasback ducks are a bit more rare and I have not yet seen any of these so far this year.

This guy was hiding out in a migrating flock of coots.

Watery Wednesday: Prescott Waterfowl

As the temps begins to get warmer and winter loosens its grip where I live I am beginning to get excited about the upcoming spring migration. I know that it will still be a while before many of the song birds migrate back through but it may be only a matter of several weeks, as soon as some of the ice on the lakes and river melt, before we start to see migrating waterfowl, although it has really not been very long since I last saw many of these birds, usually they are the last to migrate and the first ones back

There were quite a few interesting gulls that were hanging around Black Dog Lake and Prescott, WI back in December. Unfortunately those that were more exciting, or at least more rare in Minnesota, were never in a good spot for me to photograph. I did however get this pretty good shot of a ring-billed gull as he flew past.

Redhead ducks typically stand out and are easy to identify with their bright red head, however when their are also canvas back ducks around you need to look a little closer.

The canvas back has a thinner, more pointed bill then the red head duck. It also has a bright red eye where the red heads eye is more of an orange color.

Common goldeneye often spend the entire winter in the area as long as there is some open water. This is an immature bird. You can this by how gray he is and by the fact that his eyes are not yet the bright golden color of the adults.

Trumpeter swans are another bird that will stick around as long as there is open water. Once on the verge of extinction these beautiful birds are pretty easy to find in this area year round.

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.