Weekend of Ducks

My goal this weekend was to see ducks, and I certainly saw some ducks! I started Saturday morning at a Green Mountain Audubon Society walk at the Intervale, seeing lots of familiar faces and some good birds including a male Rusty Blackbird and a very cooperative Golden-crowned Kinglet. No ducks here, but a great start to the day.



After everyone had dispersed from the Intervale, Alison Wagner and I headed towards Milton. My top spot for the day was Sandbar WMA, a duck magnet. Plentiful amounts of Mallard, American Black Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Common Merganser, and Green-winged Teal were scattered throughout the marshy areas alongside the busy road. We also managed to pick out Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Gadwall, some Wood Ducks and a Northern Shoveler from amongst the masses. Where else can you find 10 species of duck on a 1/4 mile stretch of road than here?



From there, we stopped at many spots along the lake, eventually making our way towards Dead Creek. Lots more first-of-year sightings, including a Fox Sparrow and Bufflehead in Ferrisburg, a Kestrel in Milton, Snow Geese and Great Blue Heron at Dead Creek. We ended the day at McCuen Slang, where a feeding frenzy amongst 100's of Common Mergansers and countless onlooking gulls commenced offshore. We ended the day with 43 bird species and 1 reptile (our 1st Gartersnake of the year!) Not a bad way to spend the first day of spring!



On Sunday, I came back to Sandbar WMA again to see if any other ducks had escaped my detection. Sure enough, in an isolated beaver pond at the edge of reach, a pair of American Wigeon (male pictured below) sat with the whole big pond to themselves. A dozen duck species for the weekend, so I'd say mission accomplished!