Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Counting Waterfowl

I got up early this morning and went out to the St. Clair River to look at waterfowl.  It is the time of year that we volunteer to count waterfowl for the MNR.  My area starts at Walpole Island (north) and goes to the south end of Sarnia. 
The final count is about what I expected, as I was just out there on Sunday.  I did pick up a pair of Gadwall which I had not seen previously as well as a second White-winged Scoter.  The male Wood Duck was nice to see again at Cathcart Park.  No Pintails or Wigeon!
Mute Swans are just all over the place.  Perhaps I undercounted, but there getting to be too many.  From the nesting pairs in the spring, they seem to average 7-9 cygnets.  That adds up.  I noticed that in the spring (late March) they sit on the ice just waiting for it to melt so that they can start nesting!
Hooded Mergansers are plentiful, but where are the other species of merganser this winter?  I only saw Hooded today--neat little ducks.
Black Ducks are not around this winter either.

Below is my count for January 5:

Canada Goose 670
Mute Swan 119
Tundra Swan 8
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 2
Black Duck 1
Mallard 107
Canvasback 2965
Redhead 7565
Ring-necked Duck 6
Greater Scaup 102
Lesser Scaup 6
White-winged Scoter 2
Long-tailed Duck 153
Bufflehead 74
Common Goldeneye 55
Hooded Merganser 29

Larry Cornelis did the Sarnia area:
Redhead 300
Canvasback 32
Goldeneye 100
Bufflehead 35
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Common Merganser 10
Ring-necked Duck 3
Greater Scaup 30
Long-tailed Duck 650
Mallard 350
Black Duck 4
Canada Goose 600
White-winged Scoter 1
Duck spp 500

1 comment:

  1. That's certainly a large number of Redheads.

    We'll be helping with the MNR count on Sunday.

    ReplyDelete