On the Current Cover of the Journal of Great Lakes Research

Volume 34, 1

This photograph of an adult male common goldeneye was taken by Theodore Smith (Theodore Smith Photography, Muskoka, Ontario) at Lake Ontario in the Hamilton, Ontario area during the winter of 2003. Common goldeneyes are a relatively large diving duck (800–1,200 g) that breed in the boreal forests of Canada and winter throughout the Great Lakes where they are most commonly found on ice free areas of Lake Ontario from December–March. Since dreissenid mussels (zebra and quagga mussels) were introduced into the Great Lakes in 1986, numbers of common goldeneyes have increased nearly ten-fold at Lake Ontario. Common goldeneyes are omnivorous at the Great Lakes, foraging on tubers of aquatic plants, abundant dreissenid mussels, and other benthic organisms that inhabit mussel beds. To meet the energetic demands of wintering on the Great Lakes, common goldeneyes and other diving ducks often feed in relatively shallow water areas where waves action and currents deposit large numbers of macroinvertebrate prey (described in the article by Schummer et al. in this issue).