More Waterfowl

It was a beautiful day today and I was able to take my lunch down at Bayfront Park again.  I headed there hoping to see the King Eider which has been sighted there, but my success rate is not good.  I'm afraid my record of finding sighted birds is not too good.  After sharing my poor record with another birder I met on the trail,  he kindly asked if I could let him know the next time I was going to attempt to see a rare bird so he'd know not to bother coming that day. :)

I've seen most of these birds already this winter, but there seemed to be more of the males for some of the birds that I had only seen females before.  The American Coots were new...

American Coots

It was nice and sunny and with most of the ice off of Hamilton Harbour, the waterfowl were all busily searching for food along the water's edge.

Common Goldeneye

I find the cormorants have a comical way of moving through the water.  They often seem to be in a hurry, and hold their head cocked up slightly giving them the appearance of being a bit snobby.

Greater Scaup and Double-crested Cormorant

Hooded Merganser

Canada Goose landing

UPDATE: These are Trumpet Swans, not Tundra Swans....

I also saw some Tundra Trumpet Swans up close for the first time.  I had seen them fly over at a distance earlier this winter.  Although easy to distinguish from the Mute Swan with their black bills, they are very hard to tell apart from Trumpeter swans unless they have a yellow patch in front of their eyes (not always as in this case).  Generally, Tundra Swans are smaller than the Mute Swans we're used to seeing around here.  The Trumpeter Swan is larger than the Mute, and not very common in this area.  >>Once I saw them together with the Mute Swans, I realized they were bigger than I thought. <<

Trumpeter Swan profile

Trumpeter Swans

I also got some directions for where a Great-horned Owl has been sighted a number of times, so I may try that out tomorrow if lunch is free and the sunny weather stays a bit longer.

Of note, I switched back to my old Sony lens today.  I did get some shots with chromatic aberration again, but I do think the shots are much crisper.  We'll see...