now Exotic is a bad word

The New Buffalo yuck duck flock has reared its ugly head.  It would appear that someone bailed on their waterfowl flock or had damage to their enclosure as there's been some new appearances in New Buffalo.  I found this Ruddy Shelduck dead on the beach.  I toed it over and it was unbanded.  If it had a potentially traceable band I would have checked the wings and rear toes closer, but the default is obviously that it was an escape.

There was blood on the breast and a hole in front of the eye, my guess was someone plinked it with an air rifle, but I suppose a Great-horned Owl might have homed in on those bright white wing patches.

Later in the week someone found a Barnacle Goose there as well.  It took a few days for people to confirm that it has been pinioned (tip of the wing clipped so it can never grow primaries on that side), a guaranteed escape.

It's been hanging out with the local Canadas.  They don't harass it as much as they usually do with other geese, maybe they're more attuned to random looking birds.

 Aside from these birds the NB harbor hasn't held a lot of interest. There actually have been good numbers of gulls on the ice in the inner harbor but I haven't seen much more than a few Lesser Black-backs.