Snowed in Harrison Bay

As promised, we attempted accessing Harrison Bay today.  The road was fine and we were able to pull into the parking lot which isn't completely cleared but had enough room for a few vehicles.

the beach is covered with snow except for right along the shoreline which is all ice as the river levels drop.  With about 4/5ths of the bay itself frozen over....

the waterfowl are all concentrated where the water is open, and boy are their waterfowl!  Guesstimate would be well over 3 thousand.  That group of Swans are Tundra Swan....much more active and noisy....there are also Mallard, American Wigeon but also some Northern Pintails out there.

Trumpeter Swans were spread all over, including quite a few right along the shoreline.  These ones accompanied by some Bufflehead ducks which were also spread all over the open bay.

this group were accompanied by a Canvasback duck!  Not a species we see here very often.

here is a closer look at the female Canvasback.

Walking through the campground....

proved to be impossible.  No wonder it is closed 'until further notice'! 

here is another general look...

and here in this one there is a fluffed up Great Blue Heron, a few Canada Geese, some American Coot and some scaup among others.

As temperature was a steady minus 6 it didn't take long for fingers to go numb despite gloves and many clothing layers, so headed back home, with one last look....

now we wait for the next snow to arrive and to see how much we will get this time.