All – I headed out this morning to see what ducks and other birds I could find,
hoping that the snow and ice-covered ponds would concentrate things. My main
goal was to find Horned Larks, but I only found 1. I visited my regular ponds
in the area and wasn’t disappointed. At the Ponds housing development just
outside of Lexington there were a number of Gadwall, a Redhead, a Wigeon, and a
female Scaup on the front ponds. On the quarry pond there were 10 Redheads and
much to my surprise 2 Canvasbacks. Canvasbacks are uncommon in our area, so
this was a treat. The quarry was nearly frozen over, so the ducks were
confined and I was able to get close to them for some photos.
At Willow Lake, near Raphine, the main lake was frozen over, but there was some
open water on the upper pond. There must have been 100 Canada Geese, 4
Redheads, 2 Scaup sp. (they were sleeping so no hope of an ID), an immature
Tundra Swan (most likely the swan reported on a pond in Spotswood VA, that pond
is only a few miles north of Willow Lake), and 6 – 8 Cackling Geese. Allen
Larner spotted the CAGO last weekend; so I headed up to find them. This is the
second year in a row that CAGO have been at Willow Lake in the winter.
Otherwise, I saw a number of Juncos, White-crowned Sparrows, Red-tailed Hawks,
and Red-shouldered Hawks on my drive along back roads in the area.
If you are interested, I’ve posted some photos of the Canvasbacks, Cackling
Geese (with Canadas in the frame for comparison and in one shot a female
Mallard which illustrates that CAGO are not much bigger than Mallards),
Redheads, a very cold Meadowlark, and the swan.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vmibiology/
Dick Rowe
VMI Biology
