More Red-necked Birding (and Red-shouldered) !

It was a good day to spend some time along the St. Clair River.  There is still lots of ice and some spots are not possible to pull into, but there were tens of thousands of ducks to look at.  Many Long-tailed Ducks still working the river as well.

In particular, I wanted to see if there were more Red-necked Grebes.  I only came up with four, but no doubt more are out there.  Since it is the weekend, the weather deteriorated overnight and the water was choppy.  Lots of stuff was on the US side of things and too far to try and scope.
The individual at Cathcart Park was in close today.

Up at Guthrie Park, I found three.  Two were at the south end and one at the mouth of Talfourd Creek.  I did not know the two were seen yesterday though.
The ones I saw today had some colour and at this point would consider early spring migrants.

Also at Guthrie was a Horned Grebe, and I found another off Cundick Park north of Sombra.

A nice surprise was this Red-shouldered Hawk at Cathcart Park.  It was seen yesterday a bit north of there by Josh Bouman, but today it was perched in the park for some nice shots.

Two Great Blue Herons were at the OC outfall area.  I thought there was only one there this winter!  This one was having much difficulty with its morning snack.

Some mergs up close....

There were ducks all along to look at and the ravages of this very harsh winter were evident.  I saw quite a few dead ducks, and countless others in obvious distress. Many single ducks were just sitting on the ice.

This Canvasback was quite approachable, so I would think it was not in best of health.