Hello VA-Birders:
This afternoon I walked about two miles up along the Potomac from the
Visitor Center at Great Falls National Park, looking for waterfowl. After
last week's heavy rain, the river rose to about two feet below flood stage
(putting parts of the path between Great Falls and Riverbend Park under
water), but by today the water level was down, the current had slowed, and
the flow of trash down the river had been reduced to a few beer cans and
plastic bottles. I thought that ducks and geese might have returned to that
portion of the river, but I was wrong. On my walk I saw a total of 13
waterfowl: two Mallards, two Ring-necked Ducks, and a Pied-billed Grebe in
the river about the Aqueduct Dam; two Mallards and a male Bufflehead in the
river below the dam; and four Mallards and a male Hooded Merganser in the
canal at Great Falls Park. No Canada Geese and no Black Ducks, which had
been there before the heavy rain. No Double-crested Cormorants, which had
previously been there in numbers, and only one Great Blue Heron.
The same solitary male Hooded Merganser has been around the upper end of
Great Falls Park for the past three months. I first spotted him in late
August in breeding plumage, napping on a rock in mid-river in the company of
Mallards and Canada Geese. (One female Mallard seemed particularly curious
about this little duck: I watched her climb out of the water and go over to
lean down and inspect him.) Later, in September and October, I saw him
several times in nonbreeding plumage, sometimes on the same rock and other
times in sheltered parts of the water below the dam. When I encountered him
again three weeks ago, the black and white feathers of his hood were just
beginning to grow, and today he was well on the way to regaining the full
glory of his breeding plumage. This bird is molting about two months later
than the dates given in Sibley. I'm wondering if he is waiting at Great
Falls until his molt is complete and will then leave, or if he will stay,
hoping that others of his species will arrive to join him for the winter.
Dorothy Tella
McLean, VA
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