I arrived at the Belhaven Marina at 9:30 this morning and found the Eared Grebe
right away about 75 or 100 yards out swimming and diving actively, and headed
in. It soon associated itself with a group of about 10 other ducks mostly
Rudies and one Canvasback, and when I left about 10:30, it was about 75 yards
off the concrete barriers at the very end of the lot. I got some okay, but
not wonderful photos.
I got down to the Pohick Bay Regional Park about 11 o'clock, where I ran into
David Boltz, who immediately showed me the two White-winged Scoters; thank you
David. They were, again, about 100 yards out, just in front of a very large
group of Canvasbacks and Redhead. One of the birds had a clear, easily-visible
eye comma, and the other one a clear, visible white wing-patch.
I did not find the Long-tailed Duck, nor the Goldeneyes that were reported
yesterday.
Down at the far end of the parking lot, there were a lot of ducks in the open
water between the frozen ice; all the usual suspects, but no Long-tailed Duck
and no Goldeneye.
I was still standing on the shore, scanning the ducks with my scope, .
when the cold front and the strong winds suddenly came through. Most of the
ducks immediately took wing and flew further up the creek. A couple of
minutes later, I saw the 500 or so Canvasbacks that had been out by the
White-winged Scoters, suddenly flying as a large group up the creek as well; it
was quite a spectacular sight.
Even so, the large number of ducks that I saw today was nowhere near what I
saw about 4:15 yesterday. Sunday afternoon that section of the creek/bay was
absolutely carpeted with waterfowl (probably times as many as what I saw
today); there were obviously 5,000 and could've been 10,000 birds there, and of
every possible species. It was the largest number of ducks that I had ever
seen in one place, at one time, before in my life. It was truly amazing.
It will be very interesting to see what this massive cold front brings us
this time.
Donald Sweig
Falls Church, Virginia
Sent from my iPad
