Today around noon ,I took a walk down the Mississippi River levee for the length of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck aggregation at the Ninemile Point grain elevator on the West Bank, as I did last March. Today I estimated the Squealer horde to number 18,000 individuals, and there may have been others hidden from view. This is up from 15,000 last March.
They were accompanied by 4,000 Lesser Scaup, among which I was able to pick out two drake Redheads. But, I was sans scope, so unable to pick out any Greater Scaup (though I tried). Actually, the cacophonous Whistlers lulled my senses and had an odd sedating effect, causing me to perhaps not be as diligent in searching out oddities mixed into the duck flocks as I usually would
Also in the area was a nice collection of raptors: 7 Red-tailed and 3 Red-shouldered Hawks, and two young Bald Eagles.
The picks below show two sections of the Whistler horde.
Peter
