Greater Scaup + at Sell's Lake

Well, I've been sidelined for past two days by a colonoscopy (hey, if Kadie Courick can talk about it on TV ...--actually, it's a good thing to talk about it as everyone over 50 and some under need to get it and usually they are not all that bad). Yesterday I did the "prep" which requires staying pretty close to a bathroom.

However, I was able to get out for a bit and stopped by Sell's Lake. I was delighted to find 4 Greater Scaup with a 5th male Scaup species. Usually I only see one or two Greater Scaup, and most often only females. This time I saw 3 females and 1 male. They were with a number of other duck species including Common Goldeneye, Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, Redheads, Pintails and American Wigeon. There were also about 20 Cackling Geese with an additional hundred Canada Geese.



In some ways it's rather amazing that so many waterfowl can be on this small private lake (adjacent to and visible from the Canon City Riverwalk parking area), actually a pond. (Unfortunately you have to view it through chain link fence--thus the fuzzy diamond shapes in this photo) And right now it is only about half open--and only because there are "guzzlers" on it and the large number of waterfowl to keep the water moving. Unfortunately the below zero temps caught one Common Goldeneye that I saw frozen into the ice. Species such as goldeneye that have to "run" or "paddle on top of the water" for a distance before they can take flight are suseptible to dieing when they don't get away in time and the ice forms around them.

That was all yesterday. Today I had the colonoscopy which was a piece of cake but took all morning then I was retricted from driving until tomorrow due to the medication they use. And now I am hobbling because after shoveling snow from my driveway I was sprinkling salt to melt some ice when I fell very hard on my knee. Nothing broke but I got a good gash that brought me back to the hospital where I was this morning, this time to get a tetanus shot and steri-stripps on my knee. I now sit with an ice pack on my leg as it has already swollen pretty good.
SeEtta