Today in Nature: The Winter Ducks are Here!

November 6th: November is a yucky month for many reasons, but one of the things I like about it is that the winter ducks have started to arrive. This wonderful creature is a Hooded Merganser. The male is the show-off on the right, while his cinnamon-coloured mate on the left has tucked her head into her feathers to avoid the rain. These guys spent the summer way up north, and for them, Toronto is a great place to pass the winter. With luck, the oldsquaws will start arriving soon, another winter favourite.

Today in Nature: Some Northern Shovellers Passing Through

November 3rd: As the winter gloom descends, here's something new in the neighbourhood: there's a flock of Northern Shovelers in High Park right now. They are smaller than mallards, and have a cool, wide bill. They use it to strain water so they can suck in plankton, insects and other small life forms. Dozens of them have stopped by on Grenadier Pond before continuing their flight south for the winter.

Shovellers spend a lot of time with their heads
 in the water, spinning in circles.

A Female Northern Shoveller. 

June 19th: Baby Redwinged Blackbirds and some Red-necked Grebes

June 19th: This is the time of year when baby birds get big enough to leave the nest, but aren't big enough to feed themselves. The bird hanging precariously here is a young redwing blackbird. They are born in nests in marshes, but this little fellow was big enough to hop up some reeds - and then get stuck. He held on awkwardly to two reeds for a bit before figuring out how to hang into just one. He then proceeded to plead for food for the next ten minutes. No parents came to feed him, but I assume they were eon the job somewhere nearby.

Red-necked grebes

I also came across a different kind of red bird - the rednecked grebe, a kind of duck. They are notable because they create floating nests. These ones were nesting on a platform built to keep them coming back year after year. You can see the baby next to the mother. Its siblings were out on the water, making a very loud racket as their father dove down to retrieve fish. (For a video of a father feeding his family, go to our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/naturediary).

Here's an image of an adult male.

I found these birds out a Colonel Samuel Smith park in Toronto, at the bottom of Kipling. It is a lovely place, great for birding, and for a nice stroll.