![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/BuffleheadandFriendColSamSmithPkEtobicokeONMarchonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCan you spot the Harlequin?<\/p>\n
The birds were quite far from where we were watching so it took a minute, even knowing the Harlequin was there, to find him. I knew it would not have the large bright white patch on the head that the male Buffleheads have, so I focused my attention on the darker females.<\/p>\n
There it was!<\/p>\n
The Harlequin is on the left. If the photo was clearer, you would see the three white markings on the face, the white mark on the shoulder, the chestnut sides and the blue-ish wings. The black and white diver beside it is a male Bufflehead.<\/p>\n Would I have ever noticed it without the expert assistance of the Toronto Field Naturalists? I highly doubt it. If you live in the GTA I strongly encourage you to consider joining this group.<\/p>\n The only Harlequins commonly found in Toronto are paperbacks. (And as an interesting aside, a pair of Peregrines nested on the Harlequin office tower before 2014.) At this time of year, Harlequin ducks are most commonly in the ocean along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. According to Peterson’s Field Guide<\/strong>, they usually summer in \u201cturbulent mountain streams.\u201d Those are also in noticeably short supply in the GTA. Our duck was an unusual but warmly welcomed visitor.<\/p>\n According to the Nature Canada website, Harlequins eat insects, fish and marine invertebrates. Another reason to like them is that they eat blackfly larvae!<\/p>\n I wonder if Harlequin ducks eat zebra mussels? It sounds like a possibility, but I was not able to find any confirmation easily.<\/p>\n I hope this one finds his way back to his peers later in the spring. It was nice to see him, though, and I thank the TFN for showing him to me.<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> An unexpected, but welcome, duck visits Lake Ontario in spring and is spotted by the Toronto Field Naturalists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[25,231,105,53,477,115],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-birds","tag-bufflehead","tag-colonel-sam-smith-park","tag-ducks","tag-harlequin-duck","tag-toronto-field-naturalists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9693,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/9693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s a Harlequin Duck Doing in Lake Ontario near Toronto?<\/h2>\n
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\nHave you seen a Harlequin Duck? Was it wild or was it in an aviary? Please share your experiences with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"