Meadow Grounds Lake: My Last Hurrah

Friday evening I checked the lake's water level and determined that I would be able to launch my boat Saturday, probably for the last time.  The water is now down 7-8 feet leaving only the upper launching area available.  Arriving just before sunrise Saturday morning I heard a loon's lonesome call as I readied the boat for launch.

 

Once on the water it didn't take long to locate the feeding loon.  This bird was somewhat boat shy but I did manage to photograph it on a couple of occasions throughout the morning.

While I expected to find a good amount of migrating waterfowl I was astounded by what I found.  I hesitate to estimate the number of ducks present but the total number had to be well over 100 and maybe as high as 200-300!  While this shot shows lesser scaup, ring-necked ducks and red-breasted mergansers the total number of different species was much greater, if fact it was the most species I have ever witnessed in any one day at this lake.

As the day warmed a number of boat loads of fishermen came to fish the receding waters.  Two boats carrying fishermen are seen here accompanied by a line of red-breasted merganser filing past in the foreground.

Green-winged Teal

 

The following is a list of the different species I observed:

Common Loon, Bufflehead, Northern Shoveler, Red-head Duck, Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Mallard, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Horned Grebe, Pied-billed Grebe, Wood Duck, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Great Blue Heron, Canada Geese.

 

Blue-winged Teal

 

This was my very first sighting of Blue-winged Teal at this lake.

 

Horned Grebe

 

I will be posting more images from this outstanding outing in the coming days.