in the U.S. has brought so many aquatic birds to our region. I live near Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin and I have never seen so many Pelicans and ducks in this area before.

When I moved to this area I had never seen a Pelican ever in Wisconsin and now they are all over. When I first saw one about 6 years ago I was like "What the hell is that?" They are magnificent birds.

Right now we have about a dozen ducks that appear to be all females. I'm used to seeing Mallards with the male being so colorful so I don't know if these are just a different species of duck to this area or if they are indeed all females.

There is another bird that I'm seeing a lot of that is all brown, medium sized, with a very long pointed beak that seems to eat a lot of bugs by hanging onto the sides of the trees.

I haven't had time to look these birds up and I think my cheap camera couldn't take a decent picture of them.

are showing up here in coastal Mississippi in record numbers, and they aren't too common here. I've seen at least three different ones.

Both sexes look a lot like female mallards.

They're quite common here.

They huddle together in a group of about a dozen on the other side of the canal across the street from my house so I can never get a good look at them. Usually we have two Mallards, a male and female, that we see every year. It just seemed so strange to see a dozen adult ducks all hanging together.

I haven't seen the group for about a week so I am guessing that they have moved on. The water in the canal starts to turn a dark green at this time of the year and gets a bit smelly on hot days.

... a symptom of a bigger problem. Climates are changing, pushing animals out of their traditional homes and into new ones that have the same or similar characteristics to the previous ones, but in a new place. The same is happening with plants, as well. We're seeing tree species moving north that were only ever seen in more tropical climes prior to this. Any avid gardeners have already noted that the Hardiness Zones have been moving rather a lot in the last little while:

Moving map: http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm
Side-by-side comparison:
A good short article: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/new-usda-plant-hardiness-zone-map-for-gardeners-shows-a-warming-climat

It'll be great for me to be able to see plants and birds that I've never seen in Toronto, but what happens when those temperature changes ensure that crops don't set, or that local flora and fauna are completely choked out by new invasive species?

.....said.

I hesitated to post this, because I didn't really want to be a downer on what is basically a pretty fun post.

so thank you for your input

Rails are well-known vagrants - weak fliers but with lots of stamina. A hurricane passed through the native area the week before it was spotted - likely the source for this bird.

it's as simple as that! Hopefully it's not a symptom of a bigger problem. It is a very pretty bird, certainly

Beautiful bird!!

Getting a good video of one is pretty special.

Or at the very least thrown in jail to await deportation

Never seen such a damn strange bird!

For some reason, much rarer than the grey necked version.