The numbers of waterfowl off Cape Charles Beach--where the Bay was, briefly,
frozen almost all the way across to 'tother side this morning--were
impressive, if not unprecedented, today. A few "leads" or cracks in the ice
held lines of tightly packed scoters, all of them Surf and Black that could
be identified, and here and there among loose ice floes were large flocks of
displaying Red-breasted Mergansers and Buffleheads, plus many geese and
dabblers displaced from frozen lakes. The sight looked like something out of
Alaska or Hudson Bay, and the filaments of scoters, which numbered in the
thousands, were the most impressive I've seen this far up the Bay: they
stretched all the way from northwest of Kings Creek down south of Plantation
Creek. Counts at the Bay mouth have been much higher, on many occasions, of
course, but it's nice to have such abundance right off the beach here. Local
watermen noted that the Bay had not frozen this extensively off Cape Charles
since 1978. By late afternoon, the water had opened up quite a bit, but the
ducks were still around. A list of species and estimates follows.
Surf Scoter 13,500
Black Scoter 6,000
Red-breasted Merganser 3,500
Bufflehead 3100
Canada Goose 1400
Greater Scaup 10
Redhead 4 (possibly some of those seen on local ponds in the past week)
Common Goldeneye 6
Lesser Scaup 2
Ruddy Duck 10
American Wigeon 15
American Black Duck 4
If this weather pattern holds (unlikely), we might see many marsh species in
distress, such as Brant and Clapper Rails. In 1978, these species were hard
hit, unable to forage because of ice and frozen ground, and were seen
wandering along the roads in Chincoteague village. The bad weather provides
a real opportunity to see how the birds cope with such extremes, and it might
also bring southward some birds that normally don't come down our way. Large
flocks of scaup, for instance (such as can be seen out at the CBBT currently)
could hold the odd Tufted Duck, recorded only twice in the state so far --
watch for that species's dark back when scanning through scaup.
The female Rufous Hummingbird continues at the house through this afternoon.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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