Waterfowl=Sardines at Ridgetown!

Tundra sardines Swans at Ridgetown

With the colder temps the last few days, most still water has frozen.  A bonanza of birds was at the north lagoon of Ridgetown today.  Some open water still exists, but it is mainly due to the concentration of Tundra Swans and other waterfowl.
We had almost 15 cm of snow since yesterday afternoon, so I did not get out until late this morning.  It was actually rather pleasant when the sun came out for a while.

The bulk of the birds was Tundra Swan, but everything was so close together, it took some time to go through the mass.  I spent a good hour there!

No Vacancy!

First thought was to pick out the 3 Ross's Geese and 4 Greater White-fronted Geese.  For the first half hour I did not find any of them.  Then I finally picked out the white-fronted resting on the far bank.  The whole time I could not pick out any Ross Geese.  I have no doubt they are still present though.
I took a number of photos and enlarged them on the computer screen here at home.  It is fun to do this as you sometimes pick out things that you miss in the field.  One early photo had a white-fronted goose swimming!  I did not even see it before.

(extremely cropped!) 

A number of Cackling Geese were mixed in, and I estimated at least eight.

A good number of Mallards and a few Black Ducks were present, plus the 'lost' Blue-winged Teal.  I did not see any Wood Ducks until I went to the southside pond and looked back!  It was the only duck in the smaller north pond, so I went back to get a photo since it was close to the driveway.  By the time I got there it had vanished!

For whatever reason, Ridgetown always attracts a large number of geese and swans.  As long as there is open water, there will be waterfowl.  It is the one spot in C-K that one can almost count on seeing a Cackler.  White-fronted and Ross's Geese are regular here.  By the way, where were the white-fronted on December 16, day of the CBC???

On the way out, I noticed some small birds in the weeds along the old R/R.  Obviously Common Redpolls.  I got out and walked a ways to get closer.

Along C-K Road 15 there were several flocks of Horned Larks/Snow Buntings--perhaps 350 birds all told. They usually become more apparent after a snow storm, and this road is always good for them.