Harleguin Ducks

 Male Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus)

Harlequin ducks - endangered in Canada -  are waterfowl usually found in fast moving water, and that's just where these guys were: at the mouth of the Beaver River emptying into Georgian Bay (Lake Huron).

Harlequins breed in Greenland, Iceland, western Russia, coastal northwestern North America and eastern Canada and Maine. Between October and December, some are spotted on the Great Lakes. A few even spend the winter in the rough waters of Lake Ontario.

Same ducks looking the other way

 LAST winter my husband and I heard there were two Harlequins near Toronto in Lake Ontario. We never saw either. Elusive, they were always far out in the lake.

Last week our luck turned. These two Harlequins were most likely still on there way further south but had spent a couple of "balmy" weeks on Georgian Bay. Luckily for me, when I saw them they were close to shore and apparently not camera shy. They posed for a while then swam away in search of fish and marine invertebrates.

I am connecting to Stewart M's Wild Bird Wednesday HERE