Monday Morning Lake Watch

I had a short work day today, so with southwest winds I decided to head down to the tip of Point Pelee.  It was just hovering around freezing when I got down there.  As I found shelter out of the wind,  I watched ducks flying down the east side until the temperature began to drop and my toes and finger tips began to get numb.  I had to bail in two hours.

I lot of ducks were flying down the east side.  I wish there was another set of eyes with me as I had a hard time keeping up, but it WAS a Monday morning and even I would have normally not been there.

Mainly what I observed was what was flying by.  I didn't scrutinize the rafts of ducks as even on the east side they were rolling up and down on the waves and I just didn't want to take my eyes off what was flying past as I was hoping that I would see a Harlequin Duck to add to this year's Pelee list. Not this time.

The most common duck flying down the east side was not a Scaup, or a Red-breasted Merganser, but Common Goldeneye.  Besides all the other usual waterfowl suspects I saw a single Common Loon, 285 Bonaparte's Gull, plus a single adult Little Gull trailing in one of the strings of Bonis.  I also had 6 Oldsquaw.  Is it just me, or are there more Oldsquaw this year than previous years at this time of year?