I walked the southern portion of my Milwaukee BIGBY route today. No new birds, but a few interesting highlights:
* The Veterans Park lagoon is iced over. See: http://bit.ly/gEqtb2. Also see: http://bit.ly/eZFN5p for an evening view.
* Probably the most Mallards I've seen since I moved to Milwaukee. Couple hundred, at least. Speaking of Mallards, I've been noticing some interesting behavior the past few days. Whenever it's windy and the water is rough, a lot of zebra mussels wash up on Bradford Beach and North Point. Not just shells, but clumps of zebra mussels attached to each other, either still alive or just recently expired. Anyway, the Mallards appear to be bolting down the clumps of zebra mussels, shells and all. Looks like it would be kinda painful swallowing those sharp edged shells. Guess the ducks must have tough gizzards.
* Lots of Canada Geese in Veterans Park. Maybe 500 in total? The orange-collared Canada Goose that was banded 8+ years ago on Hudson Bay is STILL hanging out there. I first spotted her on October 11.
* Two Cackling Geese mixed in with the Canadas.
* A raft of maybe 200 Scaup behind the art museum. A few Goldeneyes and Buffleheads mixed in.
* The Ruddy Ducks were still there, in pretty much EXACTLY the same spot they were in on Tuesday. You wonder what makes some birds favor a location so much?
* Double-crested Cormorant in the Discovery World harbor. This seems kinda late to me. It's been at least a couple of weeks since I've seen one.
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