25 December 2013. Burlington ON. I scanned the harbour early this morning. We’d had a cold night and snow was falling steadily; it was Christmas Day quiet. It seemed the rest of the world was either eating, napping or sleeping it off, whatever the ‘it’ was they’d indulged in.
The water surface as far as I could see was iced over, perhaps just a centimeter or so, for the quiet snow was settling on it rather than melting. From the warmth and anonymity of my car I made a binocular sweep of gatherings and pockets of waterfowl driven inshore to quiet unfrozen inlets.
No surprises: lots of Mallards, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, Common Goldeneyes, Scaup and a handful of elegant Canvasbacks. This Christmas Day some people somewhere just may be eating Canvasback, hunters consider them as choice targets. I prefer them this way as my Birds of Christmas Day.
Beautiful!