ERS 346 Outing #4
Time and Date: 19/11/19 16:20
Duration: 40 minutes
Location: Laurel Creek, Waterloo, ON
Weather: 3, slight breeze, No precip, mostly cloudy
Habitat: Urban, River, Riparian
Metisse and I headed to Laurel Creek on our fourth outing. This habitat was more urban than any of the habitats we had visited before this. As we started the outing we counted 27 American Crows flying overhead. Walking closer to the river we found some Eastern Grey Squirrel nests high up in some trees. Reaching the edge of the river, most of the vegetation had turned brown and lost its leaves for the winter. Despite this we identified goldenrod and European Buckthorn along the river's edge. Once we reached the river we saw roughly 100 Mallard ducks swimming in an area where Laurel Creek ponds. We observed them going upsidedown in the water to feed. They were also very noisy. There were about 15 Canadian Geese mixed in with the Mallards. We also observed a female Northern Cardinal calling from a tree. We could tell it was female because of its brown colour. When we crossed to the other side of Laurel Creek, using a bridge, we found some tracks in the snow. There was a mixture of Canada Goose and mammal tracks. Nearing the end of our outing, we also spotted 3 Black-capped Chickadees in some shrubs.
Some of the Mallards we observed had molted into breeding plumage, with the males having green heads and looking distinctly different from the females. This is different than what was observed in Outing # 2 when none of the ducks were in breeding plummage.
Comments
Sounds fun!
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