Ducks are awesome, and lucky for us, they are abundant in Rochester even in the winter. Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes team with mergansers, scaup, scoter, Long-tailed Ducks, Redheads, Common Goldeneye, and more even on the coldest days. They are easy to watch because (except for the divers) they generally don’t move too quickly, and they are pretty easy to identify once you know what to look for.
We’ll start this meeting at the home of the Kunz family, who live on the shore of Lake Ontario. We’ll learn how to identify swimming ducks by focusing on features like behavior, head shape, bill length, and the all important “where is the white?” If the weather cooperates, we’ll be able to head over to the bay and practice our ID skills. If the weather is crummy, we’ll look for ducks and gulls from the window, and we’ll play games and trivia. We’ll also have a quick update on the summer birding camps that take place across the US and the scholarships available to help pay for them.
Contact Andrea Patterson for address.