A welcome stopover

| Christie

As we leave the winter behind, and the migratory birds begin to show up, we are getting ready to welcome them back.

ring-necked ducks

At the end of last week I noticed a huge flock of mixed waterfowl arriving on our lake, and we were so happy to see that they intended to spend few days around.

Migratory birds can cover thousands of miles on their annual travels, and sometimes they need a stopover to provide them with food, and shelter in order to survive.

Read more: The sound of the spring at Riverwood Conservancy

ring necked ducks

Although some of Canada geese and Mallard Ducks no longer migrate south, others still do. I was so impressed to see four new duck species these days: the Ring-necked duck, the American wigeon, the Redhead, and the Scaup, as they do not normally live around this area.

American wigeon

But the huge flock resting these days on our lake contains so many more other species. I have never thought they would migrate and spend the time together. Nor that Buckhorn Lake would be one of their stopovers.

common merganser

Read more: Birdwatching around lake Buckhorn

ring-necked duck

But these are far from the only migratory birds. Of the more than 650 species of North America breeding birds, more than half are migratory.

Although we’ve had a cold spell in the past couple of days, I do hope that this week’s rising temperatures will encourage the ducks finding their new home.

Read more: The 10 most common birds from our backyard

The 4 musketeers
The four musketeers

Welcome back to Canada😊

23 thoughts on “A welcome stopover”

  2. it’s a great time of year! We don’t get as many in Alberta because we have no lakes, but the swans stop for a couple of weeks on their way north every spring. I usually love to see that but will miss it this year. Maggie

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  4. Good photos Christie. Here, all the geese and water birds wait impatiently for the lakes and ponds to melt. +11C yesterday, but only up to -2C with snow today. Have a great Thursday. Allan

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    1. Brrr… to be honest, there was still some ice on the lake when they arrived here, but now I see it’s all melted, we have some promising temperatures now😍
      Cheers, and Happy Easter🐰
      Christie

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  5. Such beautiful photos, Christie. Spring migration is an exciting time of year for birding in Ireland, too. During this relatively brief window from early April until the end of May birds are on the move. There’s a changing of the guard as our winter visitors, like waders, ducks, winter thrushes and the occasional exotic visitor like the bohemian waxwing, depart for their breeding grounds further north, and we see an influx of birds from the south moving into Ireland. Thanks for sharing, and have a wonderful day 🙂 Aiva xx

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  7. Fun collection or returning travelers, Christie! Peggy and I were driving through Nebraska last week and caught the great sandhill crane migration. There must have been thousands of them feeding in the fields. Over a million in total were making their way north. Unfortunately, we were pulling our trailer and din’t have any convenient pulloffs where we look at them more closely and photograph them. Maybe they were heading your way?

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    1. Wow, that must have been quite a view!
      Unfortunately we do not have them here, nor they pass by our place.
      The only place in Ontario I’ve seen them, was north of Lake Superior several years ago.
      I was reading an article few years ago – about Monarch butterflies though, that because of the climate change, they tend to migrate much further north than before. Who knows about the birds too..

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    1. It’s getting warm here as well, finally😍 But I think these ducks don’t like to be too warm, as they are heading much northern than where we live. Except Canada geese, which it seems they can accommodate in all kind of weather, and if you ask me, I don’t mind sending them all🤣🤣🤣

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  10. Just came across your blog for the first time and I was enchanted with your waterfowl photos, especially the reflection shots. I confess I had to google where Buckhorn Lake was as I had never heard about it before. The top search was the same named lake in Kentucky but I then figured yours must be the one near Perth. As a fellow Canadian but now living in Colorado, I was happy to see it was the Canadian location you posted about!

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    1. Buckhorn lake is of really no importance, compared to others🙂 It’s a quite small lake, in Peterborough county, and it is located along Trent-Severn Waterway which links Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, lake Huron. Nope, we haven’t done that route if you wonder, maybe someday!
      Thank you for stopping by, and have a lovely day🙂
      Christie

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