I took my Mum and a friend to Huntley and Dyke Marsh
today for an afternoon walk. Both places were pretty
quiet but it was a gorgeous day out there.
At Huntley, I had the rather morbid "privilege" of
seeing what I can only assume was a snapping turtle
taking out a small duck. From the platform I noticed
a duck splashing about some 50 feet from shore. I
thought at first that it was just flapping about and
washing its feathers, but I noticed after a few
seconds that its head was not coming up. Anyway,
after watching it for a few more seconds it stopped
moving and a pool of blood started spreading out
around it. I couldn't tell what the duck was; it was
likely a ruddy based on its size and the tail. It was
then pulled under water for a while, but then
resurfaced upside down. I guess the turtle decided it
wasn't that hungry after all.
After that display, the rest of the walk around
Huntley was pretty uneventful. There was a nice
juvenile red-shouldered hawk sitting on a snag at the
north end of the marsh watching a few bluebirds flying
around. I spoke to the ranger? at the visitor center
and he told me he had seen a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK this
morning. He proceeded to talk about red-tails and
red-shouldereds, which led me to believe his ID was
likely correct. This seems early though. He also had
several stories of snapping turtle victims including,
believe it or not, a great egret! He also recounted a
story of a snapping turtle trying to raid a Canada
goose's nest only for the mother to proceed to peck
and beat in over the head with her wings until it
rereated.
Dyke Marsh had more birds but less drama. A large
raft of about 250-300 coots was feeding in the channel
at the end of the boardwalk trail. A couple of
greater yellowlegs were also feeding in the channel.
There were quite a few ducks at the mouth of Hunting
Creek too. I saw two rafts totalling over 400 ruddies
fairly close in with about 100 lesser scaup and 2
buffleheads mixed in. I also saw a lone tundra swan
in the main channel with a bunch of Canada geese. A
few great egrets are still around near the stone
bridge. I also saw 2 Forster's terns from the
boardwalk. That's about it.
Philip Kline
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