ML615612201

Age and sex

Unknown age, Male - 1

Tags

Habitat

Media notes

Taken through scope

Observation details

Continuing rarity! FINALLY. I first saw him just east of the highway 8 bridge with 6 COGO. I bent down to pull out a camera, and… somehow, they all flew or swam past me. The highway is very loud, so I easily could’ve missed hearing them swim or fly away. I hung around for awhile thinking they were on the other side of the bridge support, but I was definitely wrong. I walked down towards the weir on the Grand River and found it again with a group of approx. 6-8 COGO, and again as I looked at my phone for a moment, suddenly it disappeared from my scope view (along with the COGO). I relocated it further upstream, this time associating with the larger flotilla of COGO. Seemed nervous, even though I was very far away! The COGO also didn't seem to particularly like how close the HADU was getting to them. Maybe just a bit of hormones at play here, especially since a smaller duck is easier to bully? Histrionicus and Bucephala are both in the same taxonomic subfamily, so perhaps the male COGO do consider him a bit of a competitor for mates.

Additional species

• Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula

Technical information

Dimensions

4032 pixels x 3024 pixels

Original file size

1.81 MB