Northern Pintail, tipped up

 

As always, click on the photo to enlarge

A Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) displays its ornate dorsal feathering while grubbing food from the shallows of a Lake Ontario bay. Its namesake tail protrudes beyond its wing tips.

A side view of the same bird. The pintail is perhaps our most handsome fowl, at least among the dabbling ducks, and is quite the hardy beast. Although we were surprised to see this one lingering in the shadows of Toronto, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Its duckmates were mostly Greater Scaup, Long-tailed Ducks, White-winged Scoters and other tough fowl that winter in northerly climes.

This bird seemed healthy, and he was quite active and flew well. But he was also the only pintail, and most of his brethren would be far south of here by December 14, when I made these images.

The mug shot photo of our protagonist. Such a good-looking duck, and to me, a highlight of spring migration. Pintails push hard on the edge of ice out, and as thaws open up marshes, even in late February, in come scores of these "sprigs". Perhaps the Ohio best Ohio migratory hotspots are the western Lake Erie marshes, and the Killbuck Valley/Funk Bottoms wetlands complexes in Wayne County. Sometimes many thousands of pintail can be seen in a day.