I drove along the Merrimack
today hoping to see lots of ducks. In years past at this
time in March I've come upon hundreds of buffleheads and
goldeneyes doing their spring neck stretching displays. I
did find plenty of open water, as if the ice finally let
go all at once - well,except for one spot in Merrimac
that was still totally iced in - but a remarkable
scarcity of ducks. A small flock of common mergansers
swam under the Rocks Village bridge and a pair of red
breasted mergansers floated near the boat ramp and
Larry's Marina. The usual suspects hung out at the Chain
Bridge and I think one of the goldeneyes was actually a
Barrow's goldeneye but I couldn't get a good look so
counted it as common. Anyway, I keep waiting for the
spring duck extravaganza and it keeps not happening
yet.
Yesterday was devoted to ducks too,
as Nancy and I made a second attempt to find the drake
tufted duck that's been hanging with the scaup in the
Seekonk River this winter. We started at India Point
Park, walking the whole length of the waterfront in the
park and finding wigeons in the puddles left by the
melting snow. It was funny to see wigeons being puddle
ducks along with the mallards. Nancy kept joking about
how they were supposed to being following mergansers who
stir up food for them because they're too lazy to dive or
something like that. Anyway, wigeons are not normally
puddle ducks. We don't usually see loons at India Point
either, but two of them were diving among the rotting
pilings close to shore. Near one of the wigeon-enticing
puddles I found a song sparrow in some underbrush. That
was fairly surprising too. And if those really were two
osprey that I saw circling over Bold Point, that's a
surprise too. I think it's too early for the osprey to be
back.
From India Point Park we spotted a
flock of scaup across the river at Bold Point. Unable to
identify them from that side, we decided to get closer
and view them from Bold Point. Of course but the time we
got over there, the scaup had moved closer to India Point
Park again. They moved around a lot actually, back and
forth across the river and up and down the river. I could
make out both greater and lesser scaup but couldn't get a
count of how many of each there were. I'm notoriously bad
at telling greater and lesser scaup apart - more domed
vs. less domed and dull purple vs. dull green heads and
the size. I can be pretty sure a small scaup with a dull
green head is a lesser scaup but what to make of a huge
one with a bright green head almost as bright as a
mallard? In all other aspects it looked scaup-like but
that head was not a scaup color. Trying to sort out the
greaters from the lessers and then find the tufted duck
(dark back and a little black tuft on the head) in a
constantly moving crowd of 62 exuberant ducks enjoying
spring is more of a challenge than I was up to. I looked
and looked and looked and looked and found not one of
them that looked like a tufted duck. I know he's there
but I'll be darned if I can find him.
I was reminded of something I read,
I think in Charlton Ogburn's The Adventure of
Birds, where a guy is rowing on the Charles River and
comes eye to eye with a scaup "that even Ludlow Griscom
himself couldn't tell whether it was a greater or lesser
scaup." And what was that line about "what's the
difference between a duck?"
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Today's Bird
Sightings
Rocks Village Bridge
common merganser (8)
Larry's Marina
red breasted merganser (2)
Rt. 110 in Merrimac
American robin (1)
Chain Bridge
great blue heron (1)
common merganser (6)
ring-billed gull (50)
herring gull (2)
great cormorant (7)
American crow (2)
mallard (4)
Canada goose (2)
common goldeneye (3)
bald eagle (2 immature)
Yesterday's (RI) Bird
Sightings
India Point Park/Bold Point Park
American wigeon (16)
common loon (2)
horned grebe (1)
great cormorant (1)
herring gull (1)
ring-billed gull (3)
mallard (15)
song sparrow (1)
mute swan (4)
greater and lesser scaup (62)
also possibly 2 osprey but I
couldn't get a good look and it's kind of early for the
osprey to be back.
Today's Reading
Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn by Elizabeth
Bisland, Spring in Washington by Louis J.
Halle
Yesterday's
Reading
Spring in Washington by Louis J. Halle
This Year's Reading
2003
Book List
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