in the neighbourhood | Mama Cormier

…most of January

We haven’t had much of a winter so far this year. We had a bit of a cold snap but most of the month the temperatures sat above freezing and there was very little snow. Any snow that we did get only lasted a day and it was hardly worthwhile getting out the snow shovel. I’ve really missed the sun but the next three days look good.

The ongoing greyness really gets to you after awhile. It’s quite depressing and I had to force myself to get outside to go for a walk.

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I’m really looking forward to the next three days. The temperatures during the day will continue to be above freezing for the next 10 days but after Tuesday the sun will disappear again for at least five days. Better get out and enjoy some rays before they hide behind the clouds again.

…winter has officially been dubbed as Weird Duck Season

Winter has officially become the season of the duck, thanks in part to Rosemary Mosco’s comic about weird winter ducks! Each winter, the Great Lakes is inundated with a great variety of waterfowl (over 30 species!) as ducks, geese and swans use our region as their winter getaway.

Last weekend, when my daughter and daughter-in-law came to visit we went for a walk down to the waterfront and discovered hundreds of ducks close to the water’s edge. My daughter quickly pointed out that a large group of them were Long-tailed ducks that have migrated from the Arctic and have settled onto Lake Ontario for the winter. It was fun watching them that day. The waves were high but these ducks seemed to relish the rough conditions. They dove into the waves and almost seemed to being surfing.

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Unfortunately I only had my iPhone with me and I couldn’t get any close-ups of the Long-tailed ducks so I found this video on YouTube to share with you.