Detroit River Waterfowl - 21 Jan 2008

Waterfowl have been strangely absent from the Detroit River and Lake Erie the past few weeks. Mostly I'm guessing, from the lack of ice on Lake Erie. The past few nights, however, have been very cold, and like every year, I've been waiting for the ice to build up on the Detroit River. Today, finally, a look at the river here in Wyandotte yielded a whole lotta ice, which meant 'ducks!'. 

So I grabbed the camera and ran down to the foot of Southfield Rd. in Ecorse and found a huge raft of Canvasback, Redhead, Canada Geese and Mute Swans. Among these birds were also a scattering of Common Mergansers, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Ducks, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Black Duck, Hooded Mergansers, and Lesser Scaup.

At 4pm this afternoon the skies were partly sunny, but windchills put temps below zero. I only stayed about 15 minutes but managed to shoot a whole 2Gb Scandisk Extreme III card (329 JPGs) at 6fps w/ the Nikon D300 and Sigma 400mm f/5.6.The majority of birds were Canvasbacks (500 - 1000), which flew by in flocks of several birds to several dozen. I managed to capture some birds as they flew over. 

The only bird that came close enough for a closeup, however was a single American Black Duck.

Dingell Park (formally Ecorse Park), Wayne, Michigan, US
Jan 21, 2008 4:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
0.1 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Partly sunny, windchills below zero
9 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  36
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)  40
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  24
American Black Duck (Anas rubripes)  4
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)  600
Redhead (Aythya americana)  100
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)  60
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)  6
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)  12

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S168245114

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)