Two Baldpates and A Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

December is here, and this morning I headed over to Mud Lake to get some more practice with my new Nikon Coolpix P610. Even though the winter birding season officially started five days ago, it still feels like fall, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Fortunately the daytime temperature has remained above 0°C the past couple of days; although the nights have been cold, neither the Ottawa River nor the large ponds have frozen over yet. We haven’t had any snow yet, either, so I was hoping to find either some late-lingering migrants (Hermit Thrush being the most likely, though I also would accept Song Sparrow, Belted Kingfisher, or Northern Flicker), some irruptive winter species (Bohemian Waxwings, Common Redpolls or Pine Grosbeaks would have been awesome), or something really cool like a Northern Mockingbird or a Townsend’s Solitaire. If there’s one spot in Ottawa where you can count on finding something unseasonal or out-of-range from time to time, it’s Mud Lake – and there are plenty of berries there for any winter wanderers.