More waterfowl along the Connecticut River

Lesser Scaup (middle top) and Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Lesser Scaup (middle top) and Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Lesser Scaup (middle top) and Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Lesser Scaup and Greater Scaup, showing all 13 birds, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Lesser Scaup (L) and Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Lesser Scaup (L) and Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Ring necked Duck, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

A return to the Connecticut River at sunset yielded some good stuff in the rapidly opening river.  The best bird by far was a female Lesser Scaup that joined the dozen Greater Scaup that have been there for several days now.  Other waterfowl included 38 (only) Canada Geese, a female Wood Duck, ten Black Ducks, 410 Mallards, a few mallard x black duck hybrids, a male Ring necked Duck (which nearly got picked off by one of the two Peregrine Falcons flying upriver), two Common Goldeneyes and a Common Mergansers.  As the river swells from ice/snow melt it will be interesting to see how the numbers and diversity changes over the next several days.

Common Goldeneye, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Ring necked Duck, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Wood Duck (w/ Hooded Merganser, Mallard and Canada Geese), Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

Greater Scaup, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 20, 2014

I took advantage of a true weather rarity lately when it was sunny, calm and nearly up to freezing at dawn by stopping at a few spots on the way to work.  I drove down Aqua Vitae Rd and scared up a couple Horned Larks but little else.  My main plan this morning was to check the waterfowl in the Connecticut River.  I spent about twenty minutes there and turned up the following waterfowl:  395 Canada Geese, a female Wood Duck, ten Black Ducks, 332 Mallards, a few mallard x black duck hybrids, a female Northern Pintail, a male Ring necked Duck, a dozen Greater Scaup (nine males and three females), ten Common Goldeneyes (no sign of the interesting goldeneye I had there a few days ago), a pair of Hooded Mergansers and three Common Mergansers.   I have also had hooting Great Horned Owls at the house the last few morning.

The unending winter continues on and on.  Our forecasted 3-6" snow storm on Tuesday turned into about 9" of snow and the 'dusting to an inch or two' on Wednesday turned into 3-4" of new snow.  We now have probably two and a half feet of snow on the ground.  Now it looks like we will be getting freezing rain overnight tonight into Friday morning before it changes to just plain rain with temperatures getting into the 40’s. Saturday is still suppose to be sunny in the high 40’s which will feel tropical compared to our weather over the last several weeks.