December 4-6, 2012 Harlequin Duck on the Ottawa River at Ottawa.

The immature male Harlequin Duck was still present today, November 6th, as it spent most of the morning feeding in the fast moving waters north of Bate Island. I was able to view it from both Bate Island and from the Quebec shore line. The best viewing was from the Champlain Bridge where I took a number of photos as the duck would fly upstream, land, then drifted down stream and repeated this numerous times. At one point the Harlequin Duck landed with a group of Common Goldeneye and all the ducks began to preen as they floated in the calm water. In the Ottawa-Gatineau district the Harlequin Duck is a very rare late fall and early winter visitor. They occasionally overwinter and have stayed into April but most disappeared late winter. The first record for the Ottawa-Gatineau district was just down river from this site on November 20, 1971 at Berbuf Park. Below is a series of photos of the immature male in flight.

#1 immature male Harlequin Duck

#2 immature male Harlequin Duck

#3 immature male Harlequin Duck

#4 immature male Harlequin Duck

#5 immature male Harlequin Duck